Presentation Feedback

I found it quite difficult to present given the technical difficulties that I faced in the room. I had thought that all of this was sorted as I had met with the technical specialists last week.

It was exciting to share with people the possibilities of blogging and see the ways in which they responded to what I was sharing.

Feedback comments:

- "I have been following the journey on your blog. It has taken a lot of the "fear" away from me."
- "Inspired to have a go!"
- "Great suggestions for application of blogging."
- "What an innovative way to record your journey and learn a new skill at the same time!"
- "You raised my awareness of the benefits of blogging and how it can be used as a communication tool with other schools, parents etc."
- "This is awesome and you have really inspired me to set up a classroom blog with my own students."
- "I find this sort of thing hard, but you have made it very accessible. Such an interesting topic! Perfect for us in this computer literate world. I like how it empowers students."
- "You have taken away the 'scary' side of blogs."


Questions:
- "How do you belong to a blog?" - responded to this question at the end of the presentation
- "I wonder how much time you'd need to keep it updated as a teacher?" - this is addressed in my blog
- "Can a blog disappear eg. if I did online portfolios - could they disappear into cyber world?" - this is an interesting question which I will follow-up on
- "Would this be able to be implemented in a new entrant year 1 class?" - yes it is being done in schools (just takes more teacher involvement and scaffolding)

It has been a really rewarding journey for me. There were moments when I wondered whether I was taking on more than I thought possible in the 5 weeks. There were also moments when I thought I knew where I was going, or tried to resist making changes to the focus of my project. However, I have have learned a lot about the inquiry process from this project and now feel more comfortable working in less-rigid ways - sometimes you just need to go with it and trust that you will end up in a meaningful place. Roadblocks can't be avoided, it's all about how you chose to get over then, and learn from the ......(there's a word here......7 of us can't work out our what it is.....so I will leave it blank)

Inquiry Presentations

The Inquiry presentations have come to an end. I have found the past few days a really valuable part of the inquiry process. It has been great to be able to share our learning with each other and I have found it interesting how many common themes and connections could be made between what seemed like very different topics.

I took notes during the presentations on things that I wanted to explore further or refer back to later in terms of my teaching and learning.

Presentation Day - Roadblocks

I am about to present my project to our inquiry class. Things haven't gone smoothly - there was meant to be a technical expert to help with my set up (they never turned up); the computers couldn't be turned on (which undermined the hope of my presentation) - so things have got off to a pretty bad start....


BUT

I have managed to improvise enough that I am hoping I can achieve most of what I hoped in my presentation......time will tell (and hopefully the technology will come to the party!!!)

Creating a blog lesson plan

Tomorrow I am spending the day at Villa setting up a classroom blog with Year 7 & 8 students. That means that my task today is to create a lesson to introduce blogs and work through the process of setting one up, teaching students how to post/comment on it, thinking about digital safety/rules for use of the blog etc.

I am finding this a really good experience because it is one thing to know how to create a blog of your own, and a very different thing to teach these skills to other people. I am hoping that it is going to be a very valuable experience in terms of preparing me for when I am in my own classroom, and I am excited about the collaborative approach that I am taking to setting this one up.

I am also hoping that my lesson tomorrow can be used as a basis for my seminar presentation next week.

Plans for week 4 - A BUSY week!!!

It's crazy to think that it's already week 4:-O But also great when I think back on all the learning that has taken place. This morning I have felt a bit like Bob the Builder coming across multiple technical roadblocks with uploading some of my research data onto my blog. I have managed to find my way through the problems and come up with creative solutions to them:-)

So what is the plan for this week?

- Continue uploading data from my afternoon at Fendalton School
- Meet with Niki and have a chat about setting up a website - part of me is now wondering whether this is needed. There is a lot of valuable information in my blog and I am wondering whether I need to duplicate by making a website. I am potentially interested in something like a wiki if it can be an easy way of organising the information (in a kind of copy and past from blog way).
- On Thursday I am spending the morning with a Year 7 & 8 class at Villa Maria helping them set up a classroom blog site. I am really excited about the opportunity to put my learnings into a practical outcome like this. I am meeting up with the IT technician beforehand so that we can have a chat about digital security, setting up the site on the network etc.
- Thinking about my presentation. I am still thinking about how best to do this. I think I will try and take some more footage on Thursday of the setting up of the blog site and try and integrate some of these videos into my presentation next week. I would like to make the presentation as interactive as possible. In an ideal world I would love to get the group to create their own blog post - but this would be complicated in terms of getting everyone usernames etc. This is something to keep thinking about this week.

Meeting – 16th June – Mentor Meeting

These are the notes from our mentor group meeting yesterday:

In many ways the inquiry model is a recursive model. We need to keep going back and checking things. It all feels immersive in many ways but this is also the ‘how will I find out’. At the moment we are benefiting across the process sharing in the mentor groups.

Importance of the sense of wonderment – I don’t feel like I am getting this feeling in my project at the moment - but hopefully my time at Fendalton School will help with this.

Create it and Share it stages: This is where we should be now.
Create it = creating the website – this is now I want to share my research with the class by creating a website which provides teachers with a ‘how to’ on creating blog sites. It will be organised under a series of categories including a step-by-step guide to creating a blog; what are the advantages of blogs; experts; what are the new forms of literacy that blogs promote etc. This is also an effective way of sharing with people who are not ‘experts’ and allowing them the time to go through in their own time and at their own pace. My actual presentation will just be to set this up and show them how to navigate the website etc.

Presentation formats – see student-net page to see what kinds of things we could use. If powerpoint included – can only use versions up to 2003 and save in this format from the beginning. 20-25mins.

Check out the hub set-up in terms of using for my presentation etc. And also sort out with AV services whether they have a video camera that I can use. (I went and visited and there was no one there - so I am going to use the inbuilt camera in my laptop and a digital voice recorder)

Check out the tasks that we need to for this week – see student-net.

Think about what we want to take out of this and share. Your presentation format may be a method that you want to practice.