EDLD 5363 - Week 5 Reflection

This week we are to turn in the updated pre-production document, evidence of team collaboration and the team video. Every member of the team will turn in all the same information, hopefully! Dr. Abernathy emphasized again that +20 seconds on our video is ok so we can include credits and creative commons information. She also reminded us that we all need to copyright our work since it is our intellectual property. Even if EVERTHING in your video is original, use creative commons so that you can let other people use it, or not, your choice. The important thing is to remember that you want to give yourself credit for the things that you do. She also suggested that we have our kids do the same thing. This makes them realize what they can use from others and what they can't. She also discussed a lot of information about principal certification and what we have to do according to Lamar and according to the State of Texas. Dawn, an instructional associate also helped people with things like when the next course has to be paid for and when it will start. Don't forget that we have to take a course called ILD at one of the regional service centers in order to get principal certification from the state. Thanks Dr. A and Dawn for all the great information!

EDLD 5363 - Week 2 Reflection

 This week we had to individually make a podcast that is a tutorial for a video editing software program. I chose Microsoft Movie Maker because even though I had it on my computer, I had never used it. Since I already had a team together for the next part of this course, I went to them when I couldn't figure out whether we were supposed to do just audio or do video as well. Dr. Abernathy addressed it in the web conference as well. She also said that the week 3 assignment was not due until the end of week 4, but my group was so on the ball that we had it all done at the end of week three! Dr. Abernathy is so great, she is a real person and understands that we have lives and jobs and families and a million things to do. I really appreciate that when it comes to crunch time on these courses. She also stated to remember that everyone is working away from professional paid software and moving toward free web 2.0 tools which is a savings for us and for our schools.

EDLD 5363 - Week 1 Reflection

My experience working on my digital story was mostly a good one. I have never used Photo Story before and it was very easy to use. I hope I can find a way to use it for something else! Anyway, I posed by script to our group page and got critique from my group members. I also emailed the storyboard to them to get their feedback. I got feedback from them including comments about the time. I did have to cut quite a bit at the end since it was about two and one half minutes. I managed to get it down to two minutes and one second. This was the only frustrating part, figuring out what to cut. My other frustration was that I had to go upstairs to record so my dogs were not barking and the TV was not in the background. Then I had to cut quite a bit and that was frustrating as well. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the experience of making my story and seeing how my group member’s stories came out as well.

Ancient Manuscripts - EDLD 5366

The first thing I noticed about all of the books I looked at were the elaborate drawings which are found on almost every page. The vivid colors and intricate designs are amazing to look at. I can not imagine the time that it took to draw these. The principles of design in these books are seen in the proximity of the illustrations to the words which probably means that these drawings had specific meanings. In the Book of Kells I noticed that there was a repetition of colors throughout many of the illustrations. The plates at the beginning of the book use the same colors in each design. There was also repetition on the pages that had text in that the first letter of every line was an elaborate letter and they were all similar on the page. The alignment of the pages depends on what type of page it is. On the graphic pages, the alignments are different. Some are centered, some are left or right justified. The contrast seen in this book is not like what I think of as contrast normally. The contrast is found especially in the colors on the plates that are illustrating letters and compound letters.

Meeting with mentor

After meeting with one of my mentors this week, the only thing that I am going to change right now is that I will not have students do an online journal. Instead I will continue having them do "quizzes" on moodle and then I will compare results of that with a similar paper and pencil assignment. She also suggested that I might want to try starting a "Homework Help" forum on the class moodle page and see how that worked. Not only could I help them, but other students could read and post as well.

EDLD 5301 - Action Research Plan

Action Planning Template
Goal: My action research project is to determine if the online learning tool Moodle is effective in student learning in our Algebra II PreAP course. So questions I will study are: 1)     Are the Moodle quizzes having a positive effect on class averages? 2)     Do students feel this is an effective way for them to learn or process information? 3)     Do students feel that these questions being online instead of on paper & pencil is better? 4)     What else would students prefer to do online rather than traditional methods?
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
Do a box plot of grades of students in the class two years ago and compare it to a box plot of grades of the students in the current class.	Self	Now – 11/12/2010	1) Calculator 2) Grades from 2 classes in the 08-09 school year (1st nine wks) 3) Grades from 2 classes in the current school year. (1st nine wks)	Evaluate the difference in the grades at the first nine weeks.
Have students complete a math journal assignment solely on Moodle and compare it to paper & pencil journal grades.	Self Students	Now – 5/2011	1) An online Journal assignment. 2) Grades for both the online journal & the previous paper & pencil journal.	Evaluate the difference in the grades.
After student complete their online math journal assignment, have them complete a survey about the pros and cons of online versus paper and pencil journals.	Self Students	Now – 5/2010	1) A Google Doc form for students to fill out. 2) Questions for the form.	Determine what the majority of students surveyed felt the pros and cons of the online versus paper and pencil were.
Have students complete a survey about the effectiveness of Moodle to learn or process information.	Self Students	Now – 5/2011	1) A Google Doc form for students to fill out. 2) Questions for the form.	Determine what the majority of students surveyed felt about Moodle in their Algebra 2 class.
Have students complete a survey about what other types of assignments would be helpful or preferable to have online.	Self Students	Now – 5/2011	1) A Google Doc form for students to fill out. 2) Questions for the form.	Determine what types of assignments  the majority of students surveyed would like to see online.

EDLD 5301 - Reflections Week 2

So far this week, the most important thing that I have learned is that action research has to be practical. It must be relevant to the researcher in order to have an impact on student learning. If the research is done just for the sake of research, it will most likely not have an impact on the researcher or the students. It is important to choose something that can help you personally with your teaching, your school or your district.