Digital Immersion Year 2 part 1 (sounds like a Mel Brooke's Film!)

Well...1 week left and it's starting to have that smell in the air... I always get excited a this time of year.

As I get ready to start the 2nd year of Digital Immersion at Riverside, I think I have more questions than the first. Gary Horton (@ghorton) and I have pledge to go entirely paperless this semester for Sci 9 and Sci 10 DI. That is going to be hard...but I think liberating at the same time. Office Live is going to make this a lot easier with kids being able to see and edit Word documents online and we will still use SharePoint as our starting ground.

Beyond that, I plan on using Blogger, Wikispaces and Elluminate as my base applications for teaching the BC Science 9 curriculum.

My real worry comes around Summative assessment and good online testing tools. I am planing on using a bunch of collaborative tools for projects, etc... but I still need a good one on one test as part of the package. Anyone have an idea?

Going to start off with these videos...they are always good...

My goals for the upcoming year!

I don't think I have ever sat down and laid out my goals for the upcoming year. But there is a first time for everything! Okay, here goes!

1. Use more integrated resources in my everyday lessons
2. Do more labs
3. Do a better job communicating with parents...and not just the bad stuff. I want to call up a parent to say "your kid did a great job!"
4. Know more kids in my school.
5. Go to more school sports and support my students
6. Be passionate about more stuff

I can put a number besides #'s 1-5. How do I measure my passion though...maybe I should just say "have more fun". Not that having more fun isn't subjective as well :)

I'll keep this updated as the year goes :)

Elluminate - I was trepidacious but...

I have really enjoyed using Elluminate to communicate with kids. I found that the kids who never speak in class, talk over Elluminate channels. At COL summer school we have been using LearnNowBC's version 8, so I don't know much about version 10, but so far its been sweet! I am still a rookie btw and I haven't used all the interactive pieces...

Things I really like:

• Having a virtual community
• Being able to share with each other
• Using a slideshow allows you to keep a linear lesson (I tend to go off on tangents)
• The ability to open up discussion rooms

Things I wish/hope it will/does have in the newest version

• Secure Login for students - so we know who is who in the class
• Attendance tracker - with a tinme stamp to see who comes in and who leaves
• An activity monitor to see how much time they are working within a breakout room

I still need to get comfortable with students controlling the mic, chat and whiteboard but I think that will come with experience. I will use this for sure with my digital immersion class next semester and I have already attended a virtual conference (yeah yeah...get with the times, I know).