More Website Woes...

So after creating my Moodle course I decided that my first website design, a speech informational website, would be pretty much a repeat of the info in my Moodle course....so I decided to change my idea. I created a website (or I should say I am in the process) of creating a website for my students to use when they complete their persuasive advertising & propaganda speech. I had fun creating it, I love that speech, but I'm hoping I have enough resources for a good grade! I am once again struggling with "playing" with the design of the website, and not taking as much time as I probably should to focus on content. I am just learning so many new things in this course that I want to "play" and worry about content later.

Online Courses

This week we are creating a LMS course in Moodle. This is my favorite assignment yet! I had some difficulty getting started on the course because I wasn't sure how it would work with Public Speaking, but I did some research online and found a course taught at another college that was a "hybrid" public speaking course. The course was mostly online, but it met on campus 4-5 times when the students delivered their speeches. How cool... the students can learn about the different speeches online and research areas such as verbal and nonverbal communication, listening, stage fright, etc. Students can communicate in discussion forums and chat rooms, so there is still plenty of communication going on, just not face-to-face. I think this course would be excellent for students who have a fear of public speaking, because it takes some of the pressure off. I would LOVE to teach a hybrid course like this! I've been creating my course like that one... it's been fun. I have enjoyed learning a new technology and playing it. I think I am benefiting so much from this online course. I am spending tons more time on it than I would an average face-to-face course. I find myself checking the boards and wiki every time my girls lay down for a nap... I know, I need to get a life, but this course is teaching me so much and I'm anxious to use it! I am looking forward to my online class in the fall (Authoring Systems).

Instructional Website Woes

Well the assignment for this week was to come up with an idea for an instructional website...and I seem to be struggling to find an idea. This is ironic, because I love to design websites. My problem is that I love to do the visual stuff and could care less about the content...which is not a good thing considering the content is what I need to teach my students :) I just get caught up in the design aspects and spend all of my time there. Anyways...my idea is to create a functional website for my classroom that students and parents can access to find information about assignments and homework and that will host the class blog and wiki. I will also provide links to reputible speech-related websites. I am excited about the website, but I hope it truly meets all the requirements of the assignment.

I think the class is about to get interesting...with the LMS assignment due next week, and we haven't even started on that, yet. I'm hoping to be able to keep up...

WikiWiki

This week's reading really intrigued me... at first I wasn't sold on wiki's, but the more I read and learn about them, I think they have great potential in the classroom. In the "Using Wiki in Education" article, there are several examples of how wiki's could be used in the classroom. I especially like the Group Project example. I think that having groups collaborate using a wiki would be a great way for teachers to monitor the groups' progress. So many times I see groups where only one person does all the work or one person doesn't do anything. This would be a great way to encourage everyone in the group to participate...and to track their participation. I also like the idea of using the wiki to develop a project. In speech projects students start with brainstorming and listing to creating a rough draft and final outline. By having them use the wiki to help in this process I would be able to monitor their progress all along the way and give them constant feedback throughout the process. It would also be a great way to incorporate peer reviews... this brings up the issue, however, of time. Teachers would need to devote more time to checking individual wiki's... but if it benefits the students and enhances learning, it would be worth it. I can also see wiki's being used to eliminate paper trails among the staff. Areas like what modifications work with specific special ed students and which students are on the homework list all would work well in a wiki! I think wiki's will become a standard in education in the near future...

Webquest

I finished my webquest! I found a great website (www.instantprojects.org) that you can use as a template and it worked really well. I really like the idea of using webquests in my classroom. This is the first experiences that I've had with them, but they would fit perfectly into my curriculum. I like the fact that students can do them at school or at home and in groups or individually. There are so many options. Since my class is a twelve week class, time is always an issue. By assigning a webquest for students to work on outside of class, they are able to do the majority of the work outside of the classroom, which would free up more time in class to cover more topics! I will definitely be using webquests when I return to the classroom! If you want to check out my webquest you can find it here:

http://www.webquestdirect.com.au/whatis_articles1.asp

Just some funny thoughts...

So I am sitting on my couch trying to work on my webquest and I looked around me and thought I should share this moment with the moms (and dads) of the group...

I am sitting in the middle of the couch with a daughter on each side of me...they each have a bowl of cheerios, which are both empty and I am now floating in a sea of 10,000 cheerios. My duaghter Mallory is attempting to crawl over top of me (and the laptop) to get to the other side where Madeline is sitting...and I am still typing away on my webquest! The power a mother has to multi-task :) Hopefully I get this webquest completed...

My first blog...

Here it is! My first blog...pretty sad that I am finally getting into the world of blogging because it is an assignment for my grad class. Oh well...I am finally catching up with the times, who cares why. It's only day 1 of class and I am already a little overwhelmed. I think I am going to learn a lot from the class, but I'm realizing that we are going to have to fit an entire semester's work into 5 weeks. I submitted my introduction, created my blog and started my webquest. I have never created a webquest before, but I am really interested in the idea of using them in my classroom. I am creating one for an advertising project that my 8th grade speech students do each semester. It is a fun project, but I think by incorporating the webquest as part of the assignment it will be even more effective. I just hope I can finish creating the webquest by Thursday...