Flight Plan
Within my teaching I utilize technology everyday, every class. Entering student data (grades, attendance, updates) online via our school tracking system, checking emails, updating wiki and Moodle spaces, updating my Spain website to keep my travelers informed, finding engaging websites to help students, the list is ongoing…
I am a strong believer of technology integration in student learning, but I also think that as with any teaching practice, we must be able to justify the use. Using technology for technologies sake doesn’t cut it. We need to be able to make clear curricular connections and ensure that we are choosing learning methods that are the best for our students.
That said, my flight plan includes three basic goals.
1. Increased usage of peer to peer interactions (ensuring that the quality and interactivity of lessons is present and that students are engaged in learning).
-I would like to learn more about using Wimba in my classes as an interaction tool. I think that within a language class, audio forums, email and live audio chat would be a huge benefit to learners.
-I would like to further investigate using Elluminate in my classes due to the interactive nature of the program. Students can communicate via text, audio and share desktops with one another and the class. Also, there are breakout rooms available for brainstorming and group work.
-I would like to set up clear guidelines for discussion forums (utilized within the LMS) and email communication. Ensuring digital citizenship among students and within online classroom interaction is of utmost importance.
2. Increased variety of multimedia usage within the classroom (it never ceases to amaze me at the level of video editing proficiency our students have and their ability to turn basic recordings into DVD masterpieces)
-Currently in my f2f classes I utilize SMART technology, PPT, Moodle, JING, Audacity, Camtasia, as well as a variety of Web 2.0 tools.
-I would like to further my understanding of code formulation and review web design rules. One of the frustrations within Moodle is the lack of flexibility when it comes to formatting options (although it has improved greatly in the past few years) and so the more I can create using actual code, the less problems I foresee arising (or at least that has been my experience thus far!)
-I would like to provide my students with their own ‘tool-box’ of multimedia that they can draw upon within their courses.
-From a collaboration viewpoint, I would like to teach my students the values of contributing to wikis, online glossaries and databases, and tools such as Google Docs where they can work together from anywhere in the world.
3. Creation to the extent of the ability for implementation of a functional Moodle LMS for my Spanish 20 students.
I have been working on a Spanish 10 LMS and have the basic shell created for a hybrid version, but eventually, by the end of the summer… ideally the end of the term so I can get peer feedback, I’d like to have a large portion of both courses created.
-My goal is by the end of July to have my Spanish 10 class online and fully operational with clear expectations for students and all modules prepared and ready to be released (for the September start date).
-My Spanish 20 class has the final project created for it, but still needs the course work, expectations and modules to be created. I have not ran this course online before (with the exception of student discussion forums) as so have more work to do in order to get the class fully functional. I will be working on this course throughout the summer and would like to get the basic course shell, assignments and modules online by the end of August. This course is scheduled to go online in February 2011 so that will give me time in the fall to review and fine tune it.
-I have not yet started my Spanish 30 class. There will be some review components that I can draw from my Spanish 20 course, and I do have many of the grammar notes electronic, but I will basically be creating this online course from scratch. One of the advantages I do have is that many of the technical elements I have created for my other two courses (converting to a Spanish keyboard, uploading audio files, using Moodle) can be utilized in this course as well. There will be much content development required (development specifically within the Moodle LMS, not the copy/paste/upload pdf versions) and finding or developing appropriate resources that will coincide with both the curriculum and the online course format. My goal for this course is to have it operational by Christmas, which will give me a month to review and have ready for the February start date.