Reflections

Week 1 (Sept 10-16)

I'm not really sure how to start this journal so I'm brainstorming ideas? I think it may be easier for me to separate my weekly reflections, here in a log, and dedicate a separate page for reflections of referenced work. For now, I'm navigating the site and setting up my Biopage.

Week 2 (Sept 17-23)

	Spent much of this week searching for an appropriate article for Assignment 1A. Some of what I read wasn't what I was looking for. I finally decided on “A Critical Discourse in Multimedia Design: A Pedagogical Perspective to Creating Engaging Online Courseware” by Muthu Kumar.
	Reading and responding to the response questions

Week 3 (Sept 24-30)

	Discussions Reflection: behaviourism, constructivism, and cognitivism. Provided example using my junior high Design Tech class.
	The article, Teaching Machines, by B.F. Skinner was an excellent example of how behaviorism had been applied to a classroom in the 1950s. It was difficult to relate to the teaching machines he describes in the article but nonetheless is a good indicator of early developments in this area of technology in the classroom.
	This week we formed our groups.
	I completed Assignment 1B: a website analysis. This was a compilation of sites that pertain to an area of interest. I chose Social Studies, as I had some good sites I used last year for a thematic unit on "Wonders of the World." It also gave me a chance to evaluate these sites using the Internet Detective site (http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/detective/). This was a new way for me to evaluate sites and I learned how to distinguish between commercial and scholarly pages, and those that are academically sound.

Week 4 (Oct 1-7)

This week I decided to compile all of assignment 1B web analysis and add as a reference to my journal homepage.

Week 5 (Oct 8-14 )

	Continued reading research. I have found it difficult, at times, to keep up with the readings along with finding and reading articles and literature outside the course to add to my review page.
	Our group plans to start next week on our unit.

Week 6 (October 15 - October 21):

	this week we started our project
	we began by brainstorming and sharing some concept maps that group members previously had created
	on Oct. 17th and 18th, our group met online for a chat session. Several ideas came out of this meeting. Carrie was excited about doing something with Photo Story. We all bounced around ideas from novel studies to science concepts. What we decided on was LA and a final activity using Photo Story for Windows. As we kept chatting, we then got an idea that it would be interesting for students to create a presentation about themselves. Someone mentioned an "All About Me" activity they once did so that sparked an idea of an autobiography approach. That also lended itself to other multimedia skills that students could learn, i.e., taking digital photos, scanning, saving, retrieving, e-mailing, etc...bonus!
	Friday morning, I posted a concept map that summarized the group's efforts from the discussions in Chat
	everyone edited throughout Fri and Sat until we were pleased with the finished paper and concept map
	Assignment 2- Submitted!

Week 7 (October 22 - October 28):

	this week I posted the preliminary site for our LA curriculum unit on behalf of the group
	the format of the site got the group started on how we would share up the work load. We decided to use a folder in our group discussion folder that would contain all aspects of Assignment 3. It served for both the paper component and the website.
	each group member selected 2 items on the "list" that we made of requirements for the assignment, however, as each contribution was made we all edited and added and we needed to.

Week 8 (October 29 - November 4)

	the group continued to work on individual parts of the write-up
	I started to compile sites suggested from colleagues throughout the course as resources for my own professional development (added as a page on my Homepage)

Week 9 (November 5 - November 11)

	each group member posted their sections for editing and they were added to the paper write-up
	I added whatever we need for our web site as they came in on our Discussion Forum. We wanted to ensure the lesson plan was detailed enough on the web site that any teacher could carry out the unit without having to look further for other resources. We did not intend for the site to be a Web Quest as such, since our intended age group of students were 11 and 12-year olds. However, I can see how we could add a student page just with an outline and to keep students on track and to refer to for directions on "How to do Stuff" perhaps?
	We spent a little extra time on assessment this week for our web site. We came up with skills to use in a checklist, as well as, presentation rubric ideas. We tried not to limit the site with our own assessment-made forms, but also a couple of references that teachers could go to and make their own or modify one of ours.
	We checked out the following websites for assessment sources:

http://pblchecklist.4teachers.org/testing.php3?idunique=3&max=6&checklist=3

Rubistar (http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php)

4Teacher website (http://www.4teachers.org)

University of Kansas Centre for research on Learning (http://www.altec.org/)

Multimedia Mania 2003 Judges’ Rubric http://www.ncsu.edu/midlink/mm2002.rubric.htm)

We also considered adding or modifying our concept map after suggestions from Diane when we received comments from Assignment 2. We decided to add a couple of specific examples to clarify.

Week 10 (November 12 - November 18)

	We decided early in the week to include an autobiography from a teacher's point of view. For our site to be as user friendly as possible, we wanted teachers to see everything as we do and if they don't have time themselves to create one, then one would be provided. Carrie volunteered to do this task for our unit.
	Verified external addresses for paper assignment

Week 11 (November 19 - November 25)

	we finished the paper portion of our assignment early in the week so that we would have lots of time to edit before submitting.
	Friday we concentrated in the web site, and formatted some issues we had with the paper such as shifting tables, or updating hyperlinks in the table of context.
	Carrie finished her autobiography for the web site, way to go, Carrie!
	Added updated versions of our concept map to the web site. Some of trials had expired so we had bounced the file around for awhile!!!
	Uploaded Assignment 3 Saturday evening. Starting browsing colleagues sites on Mon.

Week 12 (Nov 26-Dec 2)

	I thought I'd add a CD-ROM to my reflection page this week.
	I finished my review of reference work with one last article.
	Finished creating hyperlinks and uploading website.
	I decided to add to the Assignment 1B page, the additional interactive sites that we all posted last week. That reminds me, I will post this resource in WebCT before the course ends.