Ok. I am NOT happy with K&J. I do not appreciate the fact that K&J keep introducing me to technology tools that I like and that are beneficial for my use outside of this class! LOL!! It REEEALLY bothers me! [:-):-):-) Not really :-):-):-).]. The three hour session for this class flew by, and most of that time was in peer group discussion. Who would have thought this could be possible?!?! It was not wasted time either. I learned from each and every member of my group. What was nice is how everything fell into place. Before starting with the first presenter for Skype, we realized it was a good idea to send out everyone's handouts to each other before beginning the presentations rather than breaking up the flow and sending the handouts between the presentations. As a result, Pete suggested that we each send him our documentation and that he would make them available via Dropbox. It was a nice, unplanned segue into the Dropbox presentation. So we started with this tool first, instead of Skype so that Pete could show us how to access the documents for the remainder of the period. What really facilitated our discussion was the familiarity of the tools by members of the group. For instance, Pete and another member of the group were already familiar with dropbox prior to this class. All four of us were familiar with Skype and had experience utilizing the tool in one form or another except for me. Evernotes had been utilized by 2 members of the group that were not presenting this topic. All of this prior knowledge lead to great discussion because we were able to share and leverage members' personal opinions and uses of the tools. The only tool that was not familiar to any of us was Diigo.
This learning exercise provided an informal way of learning amongst peers. It also removed a portion of lecture preparation from the teacher and placed the responsibility onto the students. Furthermore, the timing of the activity in this course works well as we now know one another better since the start of the MAC program which helps to create a "safe place" to make such an activity possible and effective for the participants.
Great job K&J!
Ah, I totally agree with everything in your post!! I was a huge fan of the group work for this class. I just thought it was such an effective way to get this material across to us. Also, like you were saying, some of my group members were also already familiar with the sites, so that made the whole downloading and learning session so much more awesome. We got into some really great discussions too, and even found ourselves brainstorming how we could use the sites in our classrooms. The prior knowledge really really enhanced these small group sessions for the rest of us. I couldn't think of a better way to learn about all of these resources! Just as you said, props to K & J !!!
ReplyDeleteI love how in this program the group work is so valuable. Like you said, it really does give us one extra chance to sit down with eachother and get to know new people. Especially if the groups involve people from the opposite cohort that we never see!
One more thing...so what did you end up thinking about Diigo?!
While yes, it caused less prep time for us, we really wanted you to have an experience of teaching in small groups and sharing tech knowledge with a colleague (really! it really was!). We felt it would give you a chance to master one tool and quickly gain exposure to a few others in a custom-learning environment. Glad it was a positive experience for you!
ReplyDeleteI really like your positive attitude towards class that you used as a humours segway into your blog posting! I too found the tools from this lesson to be useful, but I prefer some of the google products that do very similar things. You said in an earlier post that you are tech adverse, but that you have worked in IT for 17 years. I do not know how these two fact could possible be true! You must have a lot of resources from your background that you could share with class and your group. I hope you have a chance to share a few tips with me, if you are able, and I am sure you are.
ReplyDeleteK&J are loading a lot on every Friday though and I worry that I will not be able to keep it all straight. I am already concerned about making another podcast. The first experiment worked swimmingly, but that was weeks ago!
"The three hour session for this class flew by, and most of that time was in peer group discussion. " I also enjoyed the group discussion time. We shared our ideas and learned valuable knowledge from each other. I like your positive attitude and enjoyed this class as well and don't think anyone should be complaining.
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