Week 6 & 7: Netiquette. Manners Matter

In the past few weeks, I have undertaken a challenge of ginormous commitment.  I was offered a full time teaching position, five weeks into the school year, after more than ten years in another profession.  I had a plan to continue my coursework in the MET program this fall while re-entering the education field as a substitute teacher.  I was sitting in the middle of an orientation meeting when I began getting calls for interviews.  Soon after, I was offered a full time position in the largest school in the state, teaching both Earth Science and Biology.  After much consideration, I took another familiar leap of faith and accepted the offer.

I am not unfamiliar with this situation, although it has been awhile.  I have been dropped into existing classes at both the junior high and high school level as a permanent substitute in the past.  I have had to develop curriculum and support transitioning for students in multiple subjects inside and outside of my content area for five weeks, nine weeks, and even for a full semester.  The experiences have always been positive, so I know I am quite capable as long as I can organize and manage my time and my responsibilities one step at a time. The biggest difference I recognize is that today, I am also a mother who is working on a graduate level course.  I have been busy!  I have been researching new asynchronous methods of instruction and have enjoyed using Screencast-O-Matic, along with Google Slides.  I have used PowerPoint for years, and decided I wanted to try another slide program before exploring other tools such as EDpuzzle and PowToon.

The assignment I have delayed submitting this week is Class Expectations for Online Communication.  I have prepared a video and scavenger hunt to be used in my current courses.  After seeing my school and professional peers, I will continue to develop a Schoology.com site for myself, and will be using online resources for all my students, but first, will expect that they are informed with what it means to be a good “Digital Citizen” who practices proper netiqutte in my courses.  This scavenger hunt and video will be their introduction to blended learning in my course.

RSS in Education

The third week assignment in EDTECH501 was to add an RSS Feed into our Learning Log using Feedly.com.  We also wrote a lesson plan to educate others on how to utilize this as a direct, anonymous, and continuously updated research tool.  I found this assignment extremely useful and learned what an RSS feed can contribute to research among young student groups.  I also appreciated the task of revisiting how to organize instructional objectives, and an activity through lesson planning, which I have not done in over ten years.  I continue to find satisfaction in my choice to pursue this M.E.T program for the skills I am gaining.

The most difficult thing about this assignment for me, is applying it to a group of students.  I am not currently teaching, so once again, I had to be creative in how to approach the requirements.   I did however, find a way to continue using my volunteer work with Girl Scouts to draw parallels to the EDTECH501 course.  The organization serves so many young girls who will benefit from the STEM integration, I find it the perfect place to focus my attention.  Although my angle is non-traditional, the end result is the same.  I am learning and using new skills in Educational Technology, and training others to do the same.

If I’d have had more time, I would have scheduled a technology training session with the Boise Main Library to learn exactly what technology is available for me to use for STEM integration with our young girls.  Boise local libraries have an impressive list of technological devices and computers for public use, also offering multiple locations for meeting rooms free of charge.  Using these resources to introduce the technology available to our young girls directly connects the STEM Integration goals of Girl Scouts USA to my awareness of the AECT Code of Ethics Section 1.7, Commitment to the Individual:  In fulfilling obligations to the individual, the member shall promote current and sound professional practices in the use of technology in education.  I plan to continue drawing parallels to the Girl Scouts Out program for properly fulfilling assignments like this one.  I also plan to continue my obligation to promote current practices in the use of technology for my peers, young and old.

I have not used this lesson plan yet, but I hope to use it in the near future.  I know our program could utilize a new website, and will seek approval to create one for the Girl Scouts Out program.  It would be well worth the extra time and an RSS Feed would allow us to inform everyone of our events, resources for categories, and so much more.  I also plan to apply the RSS feed to rid my email of the constant feed of marketing materials that flood my inbox.  For these reasons and more, I found this to be another productive assignment!

The screencast of my Feedly setup using a tool is HERE, my link to the RSS in Education Lesson Plan is HERE. 

Thank you for your interest in my post and as always, I appreciate every response and suggestion to my EdTech Learning Log assignments!