CED0550 week 5

Again this week classmates facilitated their discussions.  Due to time we were split into 2 breakout groups. Those that I was part of did a great job, as am I sure the others did too.  This coming week will be my turn. As for the work, we had to look at a list of the top 100 Internet tools.  The list was very interesting, because if someone had asked me about those tools two years ago I would have had a completely different response.  Today I can say that most of the tools on the list I have either discovered on my own or through this cohort.  Now ask if I'm proficient?  No, but that will come in time.  I've been taking notes, bookmarking, and taking copies of our syllabus for future reference.  The one I choose to look at was Wordle.  What a fun site.  I can see students having fun with this site and the possibilities for usage are limitless.  Students could use it for descriptive writings, book reports, geography and science assignments, listing activities, ice breakers, etc.  I also explored Jing due to a conversation I had.  Jing looks very interesting.  I like the idea of adding animation.  I will definitely being looking further into that one.

Our other assignment the big one was two collaborative projects.  The irony of the project was benefits and challenges of collaborate learning.  Well, the challenges definitely played out since 2 of the group members chose not to contribute until all the work had been done and submitted.  Personally I like working collaboratively and find myself doing it a lot, including individual assignments and lesson ideas.  I like having someone to bounce ideas off of.  However, the challenges are when people don't contribute or make any effort to.  Should I be the bigger person and not worry about it?  Yes, but I too have a life that's been put on hold in an effort to get all my coursework and schoolwork done.  Oh well moving on. When collaborative learning is at it's best I think great things happen.  My group created a Prezi for our What is Online Learning presentation.  Prezis are a fun way to present material instead of always using a presentation program, ie. PowerPoint or Google presentation.  

This is the final week of this course - hard to believe.  I've learned a lot as always and like the possibilities that this course may allow me to explore, even within my own school district.