Final Reflections on EDU 255

     Looking back on all I’ve learned these eight weeks in EDU 255, I’m not sure where to start. I’ll take a chronological approach, reviewing topics and sharing my reflections.
     We started out the course creating our own Blogs. I was impressed with how easy this was to do and how exciting it was to be publishing for a worldwide audience. It was visually appealing to see my work in colorful print on the lighted computer screen. Then it was exciting to discover all the things one could connect to and display on the blog, including each other’s blogs. Between these blogs and the discussion boards, we did a lot of collaborative learning that was quite helpful throughout the course. Learning how to subscribe to blogs and reading recent posts in the reader was overwhelming. There is so much information available; it’s hard to keep up.
     I think the real “aha” moment for me was when Steve Hargadon responded to some people in our class and when the CEO of Skyrock responded to my blog on Skyblog. Suddenly the power of connectivity on the net was made real to me. I was able to find a good source of blogs through Psychology Today that were focused on child development. It’s nice to have others doing the legwork on new research and making it available in a quickly readable format with links to the original source. Also, our text was very informative. The author provided great information on the “how to’s” and the many classroom applications. I’m sure I will go back to review it again since it too was overwhelming and difficult to fully digest at first read.
     The second week we spent time talking about constructivist educational theory and how it applies to learning on the Internet. I discovered that I am becoming more and more a constructivist educator despite the constraints that learning outcomes can put on teaching with that philosophy. Using the read/write web is a natural for discovery learning and my students and I are doing it more and more in my classes.
     We then created Wikis and I made mine on multiple intelligences, a topic I address in all my classes. I have my Wiki available through blackboard and students have started putting lesson plans in it. In my final E-Portfolio I created a Wiki on the issues in child care that ECE 120 covers, putting in web links I found since taking this class, and also embedding some You-tube videos and a photo sharing project for early childhood.
     Social Networking was a topic I never considered relating to education, but I will now be experimenting using a Ning in my ECE 120 class. I also took time to explore social bookmarking and found many of my relevant links through Delicious.
     The last few weeks involved learning and applying skills for creating photo slide shows, podcasts, video and Jing. Week 7 in particular had lots of steps to follow and I was thrilled when I was successful in producing my first podcast and Jing. These applications can be readily applied to my practice, as they are very helpful in explaining things to my classes and can be placed in Blackboard as needed. Unfortunately I also discovered the downside of inadequate uploading and downloading speed and I need to find a new Internet service that can provide it for me. Any suggestions?
     For my final project I was able to apply everything I’ve learned in a Ning and Wiki and new Blog for my ECE 120 class that starts on Friday. I’m a bit nervous about jumping in with having the students blog and contribute to the Wiki because it is not an online class and students may object that I shouldn’t be requiring these things. We’ll see how it goes. Early childhood people can benefit from getting connected to the resources on the web that will help them professionally. I would like to make this a new course outcome for ECE 120. I will also be showing my E-Portfolio this Thursday to my EDU 200 Intro to Education class who happen to be studying the impact of technology on education this week.
     In conclusion, this course has been challenging and has exceeded my expectations on what I would learn and how I could apply what I’ve learned to my teaching. I will recommend it to others. As my new blog says, “Keep on teaching . . .keep on learning!”
Click here for a Jing Pro screen capture tour of my e-portfolio:
Click here for my E-Portfolio:

Children Learn What They Live: The Essence of Quality Child Care

Listen to this author approved short version of a poem by Dorothy Law Nolte, Ph.D. To me it embodies the essence of quality child care. I recorded it using Audacity.




See more Audio at TeacherTube.com.

Pod cast on How to Help Children Become a Successful Learners

I want to share with you a 15 minute podcast I found on how to help children become successful learners. The speaker, Bisa Lewis, is an independent Early Learning Consultant and Trainer devoted to providing quality technical assistance and professional development for early care and education practitioners. She earned the Bachelor of Science
and Master of Education Degrees in Early Childhood Education at Albany State University and is in final stages of completing the Doctor of Education Degree
in Adult Education at the University of Georgia. With high adoration for children, Bisa is a published author of children’s books, a number of newspaper/magazine articles, chapters in college-level textbooks, preschool curriculum, and more. Bisa’s life goal is to enlighten the minds of parents and teachers, in hopes that all children will have sufficient opportunities to learn.
I originally had this podcast embedded here. However, it would start playing with its radio song every time I went to the blog so I decided to take it out and provide a link instead. Go to this link and look for this episode which you can download:
Link for People You Need to Know Radio show episodes
Episode to look for: Helping Dhildren Become Successful Learners Bisa Lewis, Date: Sat., 18 Apr 2009.

My Teaching Philosophy in the 21st Century--Change Happens!

     My philosophy of education has evolved over the years to this current snapshot featuring
•    Learner centered education
•    Teacher as learner
•    Active learning
•    Diverse learning styles and multiple intelligences
•    Lifelong learning
     I am a learner-centered educator. Like Carl Rogers I don’t believe that you can make anyone learn anything. The desire to learn comes from within the individual. The teacher’s role is to be the facilitator in the learning process, setting up experiences and activities that will engage the learner and lead the learner to discover information that is relevant for him or her. The teacher is a learner as well, making the education endeavor a synergistic experience. In a standards based environment it is important to set up opportunities for learners to explore on their own through research projects or other authentic learning experiences.
     Learning is an active process, one where the learner is engaged and involved in critical thinking. My presentations involve my learners through their questions and comments. As much class time as possible is devoted to students talking about the material in small groups or pairs discussing case studies, brainstorming ideas to solve problems, and using the higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy of thinking skills to create solutions to real world situations.
     Learners are diverse in their learning styles and multiple intelligences. Each learner has their own profile of learning strengths and learning styles that combined are their own unique way of experiencing the world and learning new things. I believe in recognizing these intelligences and learning styles and using them to the learner’s advantage. I have learners participate in assessing their own learning styles and intelligences so they can capitalize on them and be an active partner in the learning exchange.
     Learning is dynamic. It is important that I, along with my learners, develop skills for lifelong learning. Technology and the read/write world of the Internet take center stage in this process in the 21st century. As I'm learning these new technologies through Yavapai College TELS trainings, institutes and EDU 255, I'm exploring applications of my learning to my classes. ECE 120 which begins Nov. 6 will have a class Wiki and assignments related to it to provide a constructivist experience in exploring the web and collaboratively developing a toolbox of resources for issues in early child care. I can hardly wait for the experience to unfold!

Educational Implications of Photo Sharing

Educational Applications of Photo Sharing

    Visuals have always been an important part of the instructional process in my ITV ECE and EDU classes. Since I am only physically present on one campus and the other campus is viewing a screen, visuals add to the experience making it more vivid and real. I also find that many of my learners are visual learners, it being their preferred mode of taking in information.
    Photo sharing Web 2.0 tools can make the teaching and learning experiences in my classes even better. My first idea of how photo sharing could be used involved students creating learning materials. I created a slide show of young children’s faces showing different emotions as an example. This could be shown to children when helping them learn the words for the feelings they have. Recognizing emotions is an important social skill that enables toddlers to use words for their feelings rather than striking their classmate in the head with a toy when they are upset. My students could develop their own slide shows to provide other learning experiences for their classes such as slide shows on colors, classifying objects, foods, shapes, learning the alphabet letters, etc., etc.
    Another way that students in my class could use photo sharing would be to create portfolios of different learning activities they’ve developed. In the ECE 120 class I teach for one credit, students are required to develop a learning activity as a final project. Taking photos of these and placing them on a class Ning or Wiki would give students access to the ideas after the class has ended. They could start or add to their own E-portfolios as well. I found some preschool groups in Flickr that have good ideas on how one could take such a photo. A picture is worth a thousand words!