This week was a bit more stressful than last week. Some it had to do with my apprehension about using elluminate. Everything worked out alright though. It was a great relief to see the other students' names coming up and hearing Louie's voice. There were a couple of times when the sound flickered but it always came right back. At the end of class, Louie's computer screen was still there and I could hear everyone talking, I could even raise my hand by going to the tool bar (sorry Louie, when you called on me I couldn't answer) but I lost all the rest of the things on my screen and the ability to communicate. It was awesome having 3 extra hours to get started on this weeks homework, and it was great not having the long ride home, but, at least for now, I still think I like face to face better.
The readings for this week were really good. I enjoyed the chapter in Digi Tales. Listening to Garr Reynolds before reading the next section was very interesting. He's great to listen to. The number of pages to read seemed incredibly long, but it didn't seem nearly so long as I read. The part about the beginners' mind and the fear about doing new things is so true. Knowing its o.k. to not be perfect the first time is very comforting. I'm still not too sure about story boarding.
VoiceThread had me very nervous. I had a hard time getting the educational account set up, but I think I got it right. Actually working on VoiceThread was fun. I could see this as a possible way for the 4th grade to make their Wisconsin slide shows. I think I would stick to Pixie for the 2nd graders though.
The idea of using digital stories in some form with elementary age students if exciting. It would be pretty basic, but making stories instead of just writing reports would be very attractive, especially to kids who normally don't like to do reports. Learning how to make comics would be cool. The kids would love it.
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I had kind of the same apprehension about elluminate and the digital classroom, but I was also kind of excited about it. In the end I really liked it. I had the same problem at the end of class after Louis said that he would be around for some time if we wanted, everything sort of went haywire. I believe that part of this is my computer. It's several years old now and it sometimes takes a bit of time for a program to start, and then sometimes it just freezes. I think that this also has to do with why my mic doesn't come in right away when Louis brings me in to talk.
ReplyDeleteI also kind of struggled with the reading. That's been my biggest trouble with these classes so far. I find it difficult to find time to even read 4 chapters a week in the books that I read for fun, let alone 4 chapters of assigned reading. I do like these books and think they are helpful, it's just always harder to do so much reading when it's assigned. I was totally psyched when I got the books before the class and really wanted to read them. Then, the second week of class "read the next 70 pages," that overwhelms me a bit and doesn't make it quite as fun, but I understand why it's done.
I enjoyed the readings in Presentation Zen also. It does seem like a lot of pages but I think it goes fast because a lot of pages have little or no words on them. There are also a lot of visuals to go along with it. I found the part on restrictions very interesting. I didn't think it would be an ally, but now after reading and thinking about it, it really makes sense. It is beneficial to know exactly what you can and can't do. It's like having a rubric ahead of time for an assignment. I am enjoying and getting more out of Presentation Zen than the Digitales book. Digitales doesn't seem to go anywhere where PZ gives stuff I can use and put into practice right away.
ReplyDeleteI was worried about elluminate too, but it ended up working out better than I expected. My computer is almost 4 years old now and it has it's moments but everything worked out pretty well. I also enjoyed using voicethread. I can see myself using that a lot in the future. What a great application. And it's free!
I usually restart my computer and have as few applications going as I can when I go into an elluminate session. I thin we all have some apprehension going into uncharted territory - yet in context, the number of things in your life you have succeeded at is enormous, compared to the little things that trip you up at first.
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