pdZone

I just posted my final project for my final course for my M.Ed. While I am glad to be finished, I am a little wistful. I really enjoyed my program and would gladly do it again. On the other hand, my son has been telling me over the past couple of weeks that he want my courses to be done. How can I argue with that?

Overall, I am glad I did it. It has been challenging trying to balance the coursework with family and the new admin responsibilities at work. Even so, WOO-HOO! I’ll have to figure out what to do to fill the void, but I suppose the entropy of life will fill in that void pretty quickly.

Things are only impossible until they’re not.
– Jean-Luc Picard

This would have been useful last summer when I took those courses in teaching with video games and adventure game learning: 26 Learning Games to Change the World. It would also be a good fit with our character education program. Gotta share…

Darren’s post A Difference: Assessment and Rote Learning helped to remind me why I was a math person (I would like to say that I still am but I seldom get to use it these days). In particular, I enjoyed the image of a math puzzle that he included with the post. I am embarrased to admit how long it took me to figure out the solution, but the type of thinking that I had to do was exactly the type that students need to be doing.

I also think that David Truss’ original comments about math assessment are spot on. I remember having several discussions with colleagues about how a student had demonstrated sound mathematical skills despite a small error early on in solving a problem. If I simply mark the question wrong because the final answer is nowhere near the correct one, am I really assessing the student’s skills? I still know many colleagues who are more concerned with designing an assignment or test that is easy to mark rather than one which goes into great depth. I know it takes a little longer, but looking carefully at the process followed by the student gave me a much greater insight into the student’s abilities.

Boy I miss math!

Manitoba Education’s Literacy with ICT Across the Curriculum provides some very impressive information and resources for the use of ICT in all curriculum areas. It is developed around the philosophy that teaching ICT skills should not be an educational goal. Rather, we should be developing good instruction, providing students with rich learning experiences into which the use of ICT is integrated.
Must come back to this resource!

As Susan reminds me in her post Different Flavors of Journals in Moodle, one of my favourite parts of this profession is the sharing of strategies that work. While the idea of being able to connect and share with other educators around the globe has become embedded in my way of thinking, every now and then I think about the incredible power of this medium. Ten years Five years One year ago I would not have had the kind of dialogue that I take for granted today.

I can do this, but I still can’t pick out clothes without my wife’s help.

Last week I attended the ECOO conference in Toronto and was fortunate enough to attend two presentations by George Siemens. I have read his Connectivism and elearnspace blogs for a while now and was not disappointed. He presented some interesting ideas regarding learning and technology. I just saw that he has posted presentation on Learning in Context today.

Now I have something to show my principal when I go off on a tangent about how the way kids learn is changing. Thanks, George!

EduBlog Insights »Six traits of writing metaphors

Random Walk in E-Learning: What if everything we think about school is wrong?

Key quote: “Education is in the heart of the listener, not in the voice of the teacher.”

I was at a workshop today on the use of LMS, specifically Blackboard. The presenters, from the Ottawa-Carleton D.S.B., told us about how they use Bb for blended and online courses, as well as for professional learning communities. As the day progressed, I had a look at Bb and compared some of its functions to those of Moodle. I took a few notes through the day and thought about how I could apply some of what I learned here in my own system. Here are my (very brief) notes:

• Very interesting
• There are a lot of similarities between Blackboard and Moodle. Bb does have a few more tools available, but I do like the open
• source nature of Moodle. I really enjoy the quick development and modules that are available in a project like Moodle.
• I would like to put board- or school-developed documents into a wiki and allow individual teachers to modify tasks and rubrics.
• This would allow teachers to have input into the process. It would also allow those who make the final decisions to see what the classroom teachers think about the process. This could be done in Moodle.
• Desire2Learn is licensed through OESS, but only for courses that are completely online.
• OCDSB has an “Intro to elearning” course for 7,8,9 students before they move into high school. What a great way to get the kids ready for those learning experiences that they will encounter as they progress through secondary and post-secondary learning!
• Use LMS as a vehicle for teacher PD.
• Professional Learning Communities could be organized in Moodle with PD courses for teachers. Teachers could also have the opportunity for sharing, asking questions.