Why does it seem like I'm always behind.  Here it is October 9th and I'm just now getting a chance to sit down and try to catch up on the last 3 weeks.

The topics all look so interesting, but honestly I can't find the time to read or watch the videos.  This will be my priority for the next few days - to catch up and make comments etc.

Hope my colleagues haven't given up on me.

Nancy

I thought this was a very interesting quote from the article about Wikipedia:   teaching kids how to critically analyze information sources is an increasingly valuable skill in an information economy.


Such a giant leap for my students, as they are used to memorizing what they have been taught and then regurgitating it.  

Getting caught up

Well, I really understand how the participants feel when they get behind, because I'm there now.  I have had a hangout with Sirpa, and have been in touch with my team, however I've not posted here and I've not logged into Moodle for a week and a half now.  I need to get caught up!

So far, I only have one person who appears to be behind, and from all indications, is not planning to try to catch up.  1 out of 6 isn't too bad.  I can live with that rate of in completes.  Ideally it would be 0%, but this person isn't even responding to emails, so I guess that speaks for him.  Otherwise, the other team members are keeping up just fine.  

Gamification

I am most interested in this weeks reading - Gamification: Using games mechanics to enhance elearning.  I tried doing this very thing with the interactive software program I created for my students, and it was not successful.  Granted, I can't begin to compete with professional software professionals, however I have to say that it was certainly visually appealing, and the music certainly made me want to tap my toe, however I noticed the most frequent adjective I noted in my observations, when my students used it was "indifferent".

I was so certain it would benefit them - I wonder if it's different for students of different levels.  These were our old foundations level students, the overwhelming majority of whom, did not pass foundations classes and eventually dropped out.  I wonder if it's beneficial only for the higher level student - and if so, then what's the point, as they do well in the traditional class anyway.

update

Well, I am finding that this semester, I am much better at keeping in touch with the people in my group.  I keep the spreadsheet of my group on my desktop, and visit their blogs at a minimum of once a week.

I have my Dashboard set to update me, each time one of them adds to their blogs, but since I've not seen a lot of activity from them, I was afraid I was missing something.  Come to find out, I wasn't, they were lagging behind.  So I've now documented when I've contacted them, reminding them to post on the blogs as well as Moodle, and so far I've only heard back from one of them.

I am getting into the hang of keeping track of them better - although I do tell them this isn't what I'm doing, but rather just checking in - and feel I'm a better facilitator and happy with the improvements I've made in the way I"m doing my job in this class.

Will check in next week, but for now, that's it.  I've not been to Moodle yet this week, but it's only Sunday, so I'll give it a few days, as well as give my group a few days and then pester them again if necessary.

Nancy

update

Well, I've not been on here a while - got caught up with work and other things.  Just wanted to comment that as I read thru Moodle, I wanted to mention, that I am finding it hard to follow everything.  I wonder if I'm the only one.  There's so many links to so much material, that I find I've gone off and am exploring and have a hard time getting back to where I was originally.  Maybe it's just me.  I think what I'll do in the future, is just follow those that I believe I'll be interested in, not necessarily all links and comments, because it's so time consuming.

Otherwise things seem to be doing fine.  My group is progressing nicely, I've emailed them and have gotten responses.  Sirpa also has been available to me, despite the fact that she's been on holiday.  We are planning a hangout next week; I just hope I can get my desktop to cooperate, as it's had issues.

All for now.
Nancy

The latest

Hello,
since I've not been able to access the Facilitator's Blog, I decided to make some comments on my own.  I am watching my group begin to formulate their plan for using technology in the classroom, and what I'm realizing is that many of them have such advanced technological skills, that I feel it might be difficult for me to keep up with what they are talking about. I'm hopeful it will be something I can learn about, but I have a feeling it might be so far over my head, I might be totally lost.
Will continue to try and update this as the process continues.
Nancy