So, we had 3 tasks to complete last night: acquainting ourselves with wikis, demonstrating our smartboard lessons, and completing a few tasks in Google Sketchup. Though each activity was valuable, once again I felt a little rushed and schizophrenic jumping from activity to activity in such short spurts. I barely had time to familiarize myself with what a wiki actually is, before I had to hunt one down and formulate a coherent opinion about it on Prof. M-G's wiki. Then on to Google sketchup, which is wildly intimidating on first glance, but is actually quite fun and fairly easy to use if you're not too specific about what your outcome needs to be. And the smartboard lessons, neither Matthew nor I had time to completely present our lessons to each other, let alone "play" with all the features of Smartboard.
I fully appreciate Prof's efforts to expose us to as much as possible in this one teeny weeny semester we have to get it all in. But as with the skype/ ichat class, I kind of felt a little frantic, and I don't absorb information all that well with a gun to my head and the clock loudly ticking in my ear. I need time to bump into walls a little bit, see what the possibilities are, before I'm expected to perform my own circus tricks. I guess this is a plea to slow it all down a little bit, because I fear it's all going to merge into an unintelligible, irretrievable mess in my easily overloaded head.
I have to say, the wiki thing is very exciting to me. I can see TONS of applications for this technology in an ELA classroom, and I fully intend to jump on it asap. As far as Google Sketchup, beyond our 21st century classroom assignment, I am having a very hard time thinking of ways to utilize this in an ELA class, but it sure is fun. I predict countless hours wasted away in front of this freebie. And Smartboard, well, I feel that to fully benefit from all it has to offer, i'm thinking a seminar is in order. There's just too much to absorb in two truncated class periods.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Funny - Liz and I had plenty of time with the SmartBoard, but I didn't feel like we had enough time with the others, particulary Sketchup but it may have been because that was our last task for the evening. I agree, though that SmartBoard ceartainly should rate an in-depth look, either in this class or outside somewhere.
ReplyDeleteGlad to see that I'm not alone in feeling like class had been taken over by Britney's new concert tour (Circus reference). I hope this shows you that regardless of the age difference, we're all in the same boat, and clearly this old dog can learn tricks.
ReplyDeleteJeanne - you are hysterical. I like your wordage when you write. You have a funny way of expressing yourself while coming across so clearly. "unintelligible, irretrievable mess" - I love it. The Smartboard should definitely have its own class. It's the wave of the future. I thought that interacting with three different technologies was fun but did seem a tad frantic. We barely got to use the Smartboards. I'm glad you like my pictures. I love taking them. I can't wait to sell my condo and the view from my porch is gonna help me do it!!!!!
ReplyDelete