3.3 Using Web 2.0 Tools

In my classroom students have been using Edmodo from the beginning of the current semester and they love it. Edmodo is considered a Learning Management System and it is known as the facebook for teachers and students. On Edmodo my students really like to make their own avatars and change them whenever they want. Edmodo has its own educational applications embedded in the program like Sokikomon Math apps. They compete with their own classmates or with other students from other parts of the world. Students enjoy playing math games from Sokikomon, they earn points from advancing into different level and they can use their earned point to buy accessories for their avatars. I also use Sokikomon’s class management tool to give and take away students’ behavior points. Student can view their behavior point in real time. I use Edmodo to send current information, post a new assignment, give a link to a website. Students have also used Edmodo to post their completed assignments and to send message to the class or directly to the teacher. Parents can also be part of class by registering in Edmodo, using a particular code number that is given by their own student. When my students’ stared using Edmodo they didn’t have difficulty to familiarizes themselves with the program they connected easily to the application, because of its similarity to a Facebook an application that is well known and used by many of them.  Students also use Edmodo to post an assignment created using Wordle a wonderful web 2.0 tool to create words and posters. They were collaborating and creating their own designs. I am currently teaching an elective course and I am trying to incorporate some of the web 2.0 tools that can be used in their core classes. The outcome of working with Wordle was to encourage students to explore a similar tool such as Tugxedo and create their own design to be used on the present yearbook cover.

2.2 Methodologies of the Online Instructor

The school year had already stared back in 2011, when I was hired as a Media and Technology teacher at Burbank Middle School; so far it has been a good and positive change from my career as a Mathematics teacher. The first months as a Media teacher. I had to focus on classroom management and learning editing programs like Photo Shop to teach to my students.

This present year I am teaching three different grade levels and I am teaching different computer programs. It has been a little challenging   trying to teach so many things in so little time. Now that I been learning more and more about Blended and Online courses, I have been spending many hours learning many new tools that are available over the Internet.

In the next school year I am planning on changing or getting better to organize all of my resources in a more effective way. There are times that I spend or waste time on re-organizing my teaching resources.

I was not aware that LAUSD is already offering online courses at a high school level, as I was browsing about it. I learned about the different courses that they have been taught over the Internet. LAUSD is offering intervention courses, in different subjects as well as advance courses in Mathematics such as Calculus. Those courses are at high school level.

I wonder if LAUSD is planning on extending their online courses to the middle school students.

Another area of improvement to better support my students in an online environment, it will be to learn to use all of the features of a learning management system and the use of the proper technological resources available to facilitate students’ success.

I personally want to learn the technical aspect of the online environment; I would like to learn to fix the technical problems that might arise while teaching an online course.

1.2 Reflection Personal Learning Goals

My response to the self-assessment indicated a minimum experience learning from online courses, which now I believe to be more effective in terms of interactions within the subject. The last time I took an online course was about five or six years ago. The technology use back then was not as interactive and powerful as it is today, for example in the first synchronous webinar we had the opportunity to interact with the instructor by typing our questions on an accessible tab in the screen's program. I was able to see the current attendance and the number of instructors providing the lesson as well as their names. I had the opportunity to post my questions right when I needed more explanation. In the previous years  I believe there were no webinars available for students to participate and interact with the presenter. In the past four months I started viewing and learning from several online sources, many of those were recorded webinars  and recorded screen casts . I believe I have learned quit a bit just by listening and watching to those lessons. I believe this is the future in  secondary education. Students will be able to take intervention online courses where they will be able to interact with their peers, The fact that most of us are visual learners we will be able to learn at a faster rate. I see myself teaching online mathematics courses as well as providing professional development for my colleagues in the near future.  I have been motivated to teach online courses by using some of the new web 2.0 tools that are available for teachers and students. I am hoping to learn how to manage students’ accounts using a Learning Management System such as Haiku or Moodle at its fullest extent. I also want to learn to conduct or teach synchronous webinars.