Hi all,
Thanks for your personal responses. It really helped get a sense of what you all are looking for. Here are some clarifying thoughts.
Online classes are discombobulating! Hang in there—and pay attention to what you're experiencing. It will inform how you handle online communication with your students. As a rule, this class is to help you figure out where and how technology will play in your classroom. It is not a hands-on instructional class in technology. Which is frustrating, I know. There are resources on campus to learn the basics (Excel, Powerpoint, etc.). And many of you inquired about White/Smart boards. Can't help you there—but any school you eventually work in, should they have them, will provide training. But the kind of thinking you need to use a Smart board well is what you'll be doing in this class—the thinking, designing, resource management, contextualizing of your content and the technologies you use. All of the assignments (I'm calling them 'Interactivities' here) build upon each other to culminate in your final project. Use it to support other classes you are taking, sub work you are doing now, or as a model lesson you'll use in the future when job hunting. Just make it work for you.
Online classes also presume two things: First, proactive behavior on your part. For example, read the blog, syllabus, etc. I'm getting lots of questions where the answers are easily found here. Additionally, all of the assignments are listed in the tabs here called "Interactivities" and "Final Project". By reading ahead, you can get a sense of the project and plan accordingly. Second, you need organization. Most of you are pros already in your combining families, multiple jobs, classes, etc. But digital organization is key as well. You'll soon be balancing all of the above plus 30 - 120 students, their assignments, resources, email addresses, their parents' contact info, etc. So take this opportunity to invest in your blog, Google Docs, or any other tools you find that will help you down the road with classroom management.
Tips: Subscribe to this blog (upper left corner of this page) via email. You'll then know when you need to check the blog for updates. And on the note of email: email hygiene is paramount. Clean out your inbox. Create folders. Delete what you don't need. Separate home from work from school from the classroom.
My Feedback. Generally, I'll post on this blog weekly and address the major concerns that I see/hear from you as well as any updates about assignments. If I don't respond to an email right away, it's because it will be addressed as a blog post for everyone soon or I sense that you didn't read the blog/assignments carefully.
Communication with Me. Please either use my MSU email (philipsm@mail.montclair.edu) or personal email (maggio2@gmail.com) for general communication (vs. Engrade). If blog post/assignment-specific, respond to that post directly. I, or one of you, will be able to answer the question there.
Engrade. Engrade is similar to Blackboard. I could post assignments there, do all of my communication with you, track your grades, etc., but I will only be using it to post assessments of your Interactivities and Final Project. The primary reasons for using Engrade is that it's free and gives you the opportunity to learn the system and consider it for your own students in the future. But each platform that you add to the mix (googledocs/blogs, blackboard, Engrade, email, WESS, etc.) adds more management on your time. Always aim for simple and effective. Thus my primarily using the blog and email.
Blog posts. The posts that will count for credit are only the ones that you post within your Groups—which you don't have yet. Groups will be assigned later this week based on your content area. But feel free to post otherwise if you have good questions, responses, useful information, etc.
Best -
LP
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