The end is near!

Not really, but the completion of EDES 501 is almost here, and as much as I have enjoyed the course, I am REALLY looking forward to the break. With Christmas in the air, and my daughter excited about Santa Claus, Christmas cookies, and so on, I have found it difficult to focus this past week.

Highlights of EDES 501 include all of the wonderful new tools and ideas that I have been exposed to over the course of the semester. I have had much luck incorporating many of them into my personal and professional life. Here's a quick list of how I am using some of the tools I have learned about.

1. I am creating a blog to post my weekly updates to, so that parents can find out what we are doing in class.
   
2. I have introduced blogging to my grade 11 English class, and they will use this to journal while we are doing a novel study.


3. I am following blogs for professional development. See my bloglines at the side.
   
4. I have set up an RSS feed with Bloglines so that I can follow certain blogs, sites, etc. This is going to make my life much easier with regards to the journaling blogs that my English students are writing.
   
5. I have created a wiki which I am using to post my class assignments and useful links for these assignments.


6. I download podcasts to listen to while I am working in the kitchen. The one that I am really hooked on right now is Women of Web 2.0 - thanks Joanne!
   
7. I had my English 11's read and record Macbeth using Audacity. I originally wanted them to create a podcast, but I had to abort that mission due to technological difficulties.
   
8. I have introduced VoiceThread to my S.S. 9 students and they are creating their own VoiceThreads. I also intend to continue to use it on a personal level for family and friends so that they can watch my daughter's progression through toddlerhood.
   
9. I use YouTube videos to enhance my lessons, or just to make my daughter smile.
   
   

If I would have read the above list just 3 short months ago, I would have laughed out loud and said that I wouldn't possibly be able to do all of those things because I didn't have a clue what any of these things were. Because of that, I am fairly proud of myself for learning about these new Web 2.0 tools, and for introducing my students to them. I am excited that teachers on staff are becoming curious about what I am talking about and doing, and that my students are engaged and excited about what they are learning in my classes. I am much more confident when it comes to using technology, and along with all of the web tools I have discovered, I have learned how to insert hyperlinks, embed videos, voicethreads and pictures (I still haven't figured out how to embed a podcast, but maybe the holidays will provide me with the desire and some time to do this), and I can comfortably skim/read information off of a screen rather than printing everything out.

Lowlights are that there never seemed to be enough time to really explore some of the web tools we learned about in depth, or to follow many of the links that others posted on their blogs or mentioned in their discussions. There were often times when I felt it would have been nice to have 2 weeks for each topic (podcasting in particular because I found it to be the most difficult and time consuming); the drawback to this being that we would not have had as much exposure to web 2.0.

As discussed in my previous post, I am definitely taking a grassroots approach to getting staff on board with learning about, and incorporating, these new tools, and I will continue to do so. I really believe that these tools will make a difference in students' learning, and they definitely make me excited about what I am teaching. I will try to advocate for more computers and computer access in the school, and I hope to have some input in the use of technology in our school.

As for my learning, I will continue to follow some of the blogs on my Bloglines, and as a result, I think that I will naturally learn about some of the new web tools that are available. Not only that, but I will be taking another course with Joanne next semester, and I am certain that she will encourage me to bend my mind a little further. I anticipate that this blog will have a rest for a while as I concentrate on my school blog, and take some time to relax over the holidays.

I am ever so grateful to all of the other people in this course. At times when it felt like I couldn't possibly do any more exploration, follow any more links, or find any more time to do course work, I knew that there were others who were feeling the same way, and also trying to juggle work, family and school. I appreciate all of the hard work that everyone put into posting their blogs and finding interesting and helpful links, and I hope that their blogs remain out there for me to refer to in the future. These are extremely useful resources, filled with hours of research, and it would be a shame to lose them. The discussion sections of the course have also been filled with information, and suggestions which I hope to have some time to explore and implement over the holidays. Of particular interest is the discussion around how to stay organized in a web 2.0 environment. I will definitely be copying some of these suggestions to a folder on my computer!

So, I think that's it for me. I plan on celebrating the completion of EDES 501, and I hope you do too!