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.