Vokis, Jogs, and Modules...Oh My!

Within a week, things started getting real! After my fifth class out of six, I learned how I can be in charge now, how I can be an online teacher...do I truly have what it takes? Our class has read a series of articles that provided us insights into the world of online education. There were many qualities addressed, positive and negative aspects reviewed, and comments posted from those that are involved in this world already. I have once again drawn this conclusion...I can do this! I would love an opportunity to explore this world, learn more about it, and contribute to it as an online teacher. I feel that this world,in addition to my professionalism will be a fun, wild, frantic ride full of  ups and downs, but so is any job!! For this entry, I am going to talk about the highlights from the last week and how these will affect my teaching in the future!

Last week, I joined a colleague on Blackboard Collaborate, an online teaching tool where courses, lectures, and presentations can be conducted and students can join to participate. It went very well!! I felt confident in my abilities and look forward to interacting and hopefully using it more often. The worry I have is the ability to practice. I will keep playing around with my free 30 day trial, but after that, I am not sure how I will continue to use it unless my district adopts it into our school or if I work in a job that uses it as well. Either way, this was something new that I feel makes online teaching engaging and possible!!

Two new technology tools that I learned about were how to create a Voki and add favorite websites through Jog the Web. Apparently, the Voki has been around awhile, but you get to create an interactive avatar that can be posted, recorded with your own voice, designed, and added to any site you already use! Okay, have you checked out my avatar yet? PRESS PLAY! TOP RIGHT ON MY BLOG! :-) My two daughters gave it a try and were a little surprised to hear that the unicorn sounds awfully like their mom! I would love to have an avatar introduce them to my own website or have each of my students use an avatar to give them a creative voice on an assignment. I feel that it can be a creative way to bring out many shy students and give them a chance to share a comment about our current topic. They could even set up two and have them respond to a debate! The Voki with the most convincing comment wins! The other technology tool that I learned to use was called Jog the Web. Here is a link to check out my first trial run, Carrie's Jog the Web.This tool allows the owner to create pages and collections of important websites. I enjoyed this one immediately. I can see this being an easy thing to set up for my students when a collection of links and Internet resources are needed to be used. Students can go from one page to the other easily and quickly and see my comments about each site. I seem to say this several times, but I do mean it...I have enjoyed learning about these tools and can't wait to see them take a place in my lesson plans and help students thrive.

Now, another test stands in front of me...creating my own interactive course (lesson) for students in my class to interact and use. I am nervous, but confident in my ability  to complete this challenge. Already, I do feel ahead of the game because I will be working on this with my current Social Studies partner, and I would like to expand my use of Edmodo, a site I have used just this past school year. So, stay tuned, keep reading, press play on my Voki, and post any comments you have! Thank you!!

The Next Chapter: Synchronous Learning vs. Asynchronous Learning

Ahh, yes, this will be my future, just another seat with another little child who will probably be on her phone anyways. This fits well as I approach my latest blog entry. Our life is focused around technology! As I have begun the second half of my online teaching course, we focused on synchronous learning versus asynchronous learning as well as learning how to become an administrator on a community board such as Blackboard Collaborate. What a way to start the second half...many new things to learn, many new things to try, and figuring out the time to do it all!

Synchronous Learning has many benefits including the ability for students and teachers to participate simultaneously in the learning process, no matter the distance our students may be from each other. I must admit that I love this concept! There are many benefits including how it can reach out to so many people at the same time, provide immediate feedback, be highly motivating, and have a quick feeling of community (telepresence). Asynchronous Learning has its perks too including flexibility, more time to reflect or let the information process, and accessing homework and activities from home.  It can be cost effective (no pressure to have your computer/Internet working at that precise moment).

I love both ideas! Each side had features that I need and would be looking to use in my current position or what I would want to use if I become an online teacher. I know that I feel highly motivated and can tell my brain is engaged when I participate in my own synchronous learning through this class I am taking now.  However, I appreciate being able to breathe and slow down and let all the new information soak in when it involves asynchronous learning.

I will also be soon embarking on an adventure of becoming my own administrator to the Blackboard Collaborate. This will be completely new and nerve wracking to me, but I will open my arms up to the challenge. I loved being a participant, and it seemed easy to work around, and therefore, I will see what this new adventure brings! To be continued...

Mrs. Kysely: Middle School Social Studies Teacher Now, Online Teacher Later?

PRO: I have used, been trained, helped, shared, used, or owned one of these at some point in time. CON: They get discontinued, changed, upgraded, broken, or simply there are just too many and not enough time!

I had a wonderful childhood! I learned to adapt to having a father in the military and moving around to several states while growing up. I look back fondly from my experiences, but one thing I do know...I did not like it when things change....at first! Right before I turned thirteen, we moved to Maryland. I HATED the idea! I was not a rebel, but I showed my protest on the door of my room in our new house with signs posted saying how I hated Maryland. Flash forward to my high school graduation, you would see me bawling, not because I still hated Maryland, but because I had to leave my most dearest friends to go to Wisconsin to attend Marquette University. Also, my family was moving permanently to Georgia since my dad retired from the military and was hired at his dream job. It did not take long for me to grow to LOVE my state of Maryland, but I was just that stubborn teenager that did not want change. I felt that I had enough of it with all our previous moves. I see this in my personality all the time. When a little blimp shows up on my well planned, highly organized radar, I get nervous, I yell, want to run, and still get dramatic. I mentioned close to these words on my very first blog. Before I published my second blog, I yelled and panicked when I first saw the words, "CSS 2.1" on one of our online assignments and wanted to quit. Through everything, so far, I have found that my quick, widely ranged, panic attacks were not necessary after all. I can do this, it will be alright, and I just might discover how much I love it!!! 

Between my second and third online course, I learned about online storage such as Dropbox and Evernote, more about other web cam communications such as Skype and Google Video Chat, as well as completed an online aptitude assessment to determine my level of competency as an online teacher.  I was excited to see Dropbox and Evernote included in last week's class for online storage. I have experience using both of them and still use them to this day. I can easily describe how I use Dropbox and Evernote personally and professionally. 

Dropbox allows any of my Microsoft Word Documents, PowerPoint projects, etc. to be available from one computer to another. You do have to download Dropbox on those computers, but your files are also available to view through their website. With this in mind, I had started using it store all my work since I started teaching. It would be a huge time saver and stress relief for me to know that whatever I had worked on at home was ready for me at work. However, I did seem some limitations, some days in which my Dropbox did not sync properly. I was able to get through those glitches and felt confident to highly recommend it for many of my colleagues. 

My husband first introduced me to Evernote. This is a part of his amazing profession as a Technology Integrator in his school district, and I was of course a bit reluctant (okay...a lot...I told him, "I didn't have time to learn this."). If he reads this, I will admit how wrong I was. Once I got through my usual panic about change and doing something different, I quickly saw the benefit. I began using it personally by creating a notebook for Cailyn's documents as she was about to enter Kindergarten. I had my own separate notebook for that. Then, I saw how easy it was to use, and WAIT!...what is this about the Evernote Clipper?!?! Once I added that to my browser, I was hooked! I used it more professionally, one notebook for my lesson plans and one notebook for my content area. It was easy to store and organize everything. With the clipper attached, I can now easily save and store web sites, video clips, articles, etc. It has tagging features which, for my obsessive compulsion for organization, completely thrilled me. I love how everything is everywhere with me no matter which device I am using and where I am located. I have the apps for both Dropbox and Evernote on my cell phone which increase the ease of it all! This time, a move into the technology world, isn't so bad after all (no protest posters what-so-ever :-)!! ). 

Since I have already had experience with those online storage tools, I am getting to know some web cam communications such as Skype. My family and I have been using Skype for a long time. Reading above you know my parents live in Georgia, and since graduating from Marquette, my new family is here in Wisconsin. I have more family all over the country including my brother and his family in Cleveland, Ohio. Skype is easy, simple, fun to use, and I don't feel so far away from my family anymore. Professionally, I would like to expand its use more in order to bring in a guest speaker, for example, a historian that could talk to my students about Abraham Lincoln's life from a university across the country! There were others that were completely new to me, for example, oovoo and Eyejot, but I look forward to reviewing them and seeing how they compare to Skype. 

I am learning my own little lessons that I can be nervous of some of the new components of these technology tools, but I am finding my balance and slowly discovering that this potential change of being an online instructor in the future is looking good after all. I completed an online aptitude assessment and questionnaire tonight and found that overall, I am at intermediate to advanced levels! Many of the questions are a part of my current teaching philosophy, and I do feel that with more time, education, and practice that I can really do this! My concern is the fear of the unknown, the inexperience I have of being an online instructor, and balancing all the technology terms, tools, devices, etc. that come with it. How do you know what is the best? How do you keep up with it all when there is so many wonderful things out there? I do know that right now I don't have the answers, though any feedback (FIGGYback), is appreciated. However, in the mean time, I am going to keep on learning and see what fate has in store! 

Blog #2-"I'm Back!"

6 and already a master at navigating on the computer! 

Well, I am back again, and I start with this photo! There is a caption...six and already a master at navigating on the computer. I awoke one morning and saw my oldest, Cailyn, already on the computer. I normally do not let her on my MacBook, but she had already managed to turn it on, get onto her school's website, logged on, scrolled to the Kindergarten page, and was playing a math game. Whew! I just stood there in awe! This is the future.  This is considered normal for her and clearly fun and easy to use! This made me think of what I am doing with taking this online class. After the second session, I was challenged and now seeing Cailyn do all these things so well,  I want to be able to connect with her. I need to learn, I need to understand, apply, make mistakes, learn again, and keep moving forward.

During the second class, I learned about social bookmarking, browsers, and I signed up for a Diigo account. At first, I will admit I thought I had this subject matter down.

PERSONALLY: From my own experience, I have had time to practice saving folders under my bookmark, using apps such as Evernote which can tag favorite sites, videos, pictures, etc. I have enjoyed using those and found how much they can keep me organized since there is so much out there on the world wide web. I felt confident with using different browsers. I have seen how different browsers work on different computers and been able to find benefits in browsers such as Chrome and how it works with my Google features. Friday night rolled around and BOOM! I was in a panic! I started my homework, and I came across new names, technical terms that I had not heard of before, and the frustration set in. Even though, I was becoming frustrated, I took a deep breath, leaned on the support of my friends and my husband, and I got through it. I am learning and having fun exploring.

PROFESSIONALLY: I can see many new things I look forward to using in my classroom. I do see a huge advantage with my new educator account on Diigo. I am hoping that I can prepare some communities, set up groups for my different classes, and get more and more students involved with tagging articles that they have researched and provide feedback to each other. I also feel confident that I can soon be that expert colleagues can lean on when they need ideas to incorporate technology in their classroom based on what I have learned and used in my experiences.

I focus back to the picture of Cailyn. I focus on her excitement as she discovers how technology works and how much fun it can be. It is a simple message that I take with me as I move forward and learn more from this online class. Even though I will still come across many challenges, I lean too on this message heard on one of my favorite sit-coms when the main character is thrown a challenge his way. He will strongly reply without hesitation, "Challenge Accepted!" I shall do so as well with excitement like my daughter, Cailyn!

Assessment 1.1 Blogging

The time has come to embrace the use of technology both personally and professionally. Recently, I began coursework for my newest class, CED501 Successful Online Learning through Cardinal Stritch University. I have always been the one to become excited, but yet I let my nerves get the best of me and got easily flustered. I was extremely nervous during my first session and felt frustrated when a few minor things were not working.  As the time went by, I found my excitement growing as I began seeing many new opportunities and experiences open up online.

I am surrounded by technology personally because of what my husband does for a living as the Director of Technology Instruction at a high school in Kenosha County, and as well as professionally, for example, when I read an e-mail about being a part of my school district's Next Generation of Learners team for the next school year. Again, the same feelings came around, excitement and frustration. I am excited because I know through this course I will be exposed to new informational sites like this blog (first timer here!) as well as many new collaborating skills that are essential to online learning. I do worry about the frustration part of it and how I will find the time to get through it. At times in my school when I can actually get a hold of laptop carts, it takes a lot of patience and time for my students to get logged on, to deal with forgotten passwords, laptops that were not charged or broken, and to help students know where to save their documents.  I then must have a successful lesson through technology in under 41 minutes of class time! Yikes! 

In particular, I am concerned about engaging my students. The video that I have attached to this blog really makes me think and ponder the same questions the students in the video have. I want to engage them and if they are surrounded by their own technology, cell phones, text messages, e-mail, gaming sites, Facebook, Twitter (I can go on and it is overwhelming), how will I keep them engaged in my classroom? 

Source: YouTube

A Vision of K-12 Students Today

However, I am a willing participant and open to learning, trying, and practicing through learning technological opportunities offered in this class. I am confident that I will reach out to my own next generation of learners. I have already seen some examples in my current profession by the success of apps or sites I have already been using such as Edmodo, Evernote, Google Sites and Documents, Remind101, and PollEverywhere.com. I hope to find ways to put them all together with what I will learn from this course.

I will end my first blog with the intention that I am open and ready to learn from all my colleagues. I am a team player and open to suggestions, comments, and feedback (or FIGGYBACK which was inspired from a fond nickname of mine growing up). During this course, I look forward to incorporating what I have learned into my classroom (perhaps becoming an online teacher) as well as learning from others how they find the balance of using technology with content, such as my favorite subject, Social Studies. Thank you!!