Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Techno Tadpole Transforms


Technological Rock Star! 

     Finished up my Boot Camp Tech Skills Chart, today, amazed at my progress.  My Sakai “Practice Class,” Composition I, complete with super-duper, resource-rich syllabus, is up and running.  I don’t actually teach any online classes, yet, but I have all the building blocks in place to accept some.   Also, having created one online class, I feel a lot more confident in setting up another.  I’ve certainly enjoyed working with our college’s online classroom technology coach, Christina Schweibert, and I consider her to be a friendly, approachable resource.  Perhaps my lack of hysterical,  gotta’-have-it-yesterday attitude has helped us work together. 

I’ll miss blogging here, to some extent.  In recent years, weblog technology has become a widely used tool of communication with discussion forums, blogs and chat.  The New York Times reported thousands of teachers using blogs.  Teacher-generated blogs can be helpful in professional development to support technological training logs and goals.  Maintaining a blog with evidence of goals achieved allows supervisors and coordinators to be able to follow the progress. I might blog again, but I think I’ll set up an address with a built-in mnemonic and my name, like my Google website, Write on, Mrs. Frake!  https://sites.google.com/site/writeonmrsfrake/. 

This technology blog helped me to critically reflect on my technology integration, inside and outside of the classroom, and helps my teacher to record my progress and goal achievement.

Rather than feeling finished, I feel like this has been a springboard to continued training.  I’ve signed up for two faculty training sessions on Excel Spreadsheets this spring, at my college.  I’ve also signed up for a Visio training in January.  

Woo hoo!  This neophyte techno-tadpole is turning into a…mermaid!


Monday, November 4, 2013

Sakai Lab Appointment


Substitute the word class for term paper.   Wednesday, from 9:00 am - 6:00 pm I can build an online Composition I class in the Sakai lab and get help.  

How many backpacks, books, and folders can I take?  ALL OF THEM.  I'm chaining myself to my chair until it's finished.  The syllabus is getting there.  I have the class material.  But no one is sure if I can download from Google Drive into the software.   Even the experts await my arrival with baited breath. : )

Saturday, November 2, 2013

Wedding Weekend


Post Wedding Snaps at House


What the bride's mother dreams about when she's very tired...

I like drawing on the laptop.  I like villifying the Turnitin,com website, because we've been wrestling back and forth for two weeks.  I'm determined to win.  

Apparently I need to out witthe plagerism checking software, as I program in due dates, what the students can see and what the software will accept.  Then I need to coax everyone into resubmitting and the software into reassessing the resubmissions.  I'm feeling redoubtable....really.

I am finalizing an online, super-enhanced syllabus for my Composition I class, and I have access to Northwest State Community College's Sakai Online class software.  I have inserted the syllabus plus the supplemental assignment helps.  Woo Hoo!  I have an appointment next week for some one-on-one assistance with posting.  Cha, cha, cha!