• Topic 8 - Exercise 2

    Posted on October 10th, 2009, 3:52 pm by admin

    The avalanche of applications self-interview

    Try an interview with yourself  to extract your own thoughts on the topic.
    Devise three (3) questions that interest you at this stage and reveal what is on your mind to yourself.
    Comment on the self-interview experience in your blog.

    Questions:

    (1). Is it difficult to keep up with the new tools for communication?
    I am finding it difficult to keep up with all the new tools being introduced within this course.  I was slow to take up using the internet as a means of communication with others and now, it seems they are coming at me from all directions. I am hoping that I will have time to test all the tools out fully when I have completed the course. 

    (2). Am I able to use some of the applications I have looked at in the classroom?
    Many of the tools we have used for this course, are unavailable for use in the classroom as the age of  my students isn’t within the range required. I particularly like the look of some of the applications for classroom use.  Skype, I think, might be particularly beneficial.  I see it as having uses in the school - to connect students working collaboratively across grades, schools and outside areas as well as being beneficial for communication for administrators across schools. In fact I think our group of schools are aiming to do that during 2010 when our network is upgraded.

    (3). Which online tools, have you discovered particularly valuable this semester? 
    This semester I have particularly discovered bookmarking and found it an excellent tool as I have surfed around a huge number of websites. Diigo has been a great find. I like its flexibility and the fact that, after using it for a while it is a good reflection of what you have been researching etc. I have searched many of the groups attached to diigo and have found some great resources for classroom use.  I have also, recently, come across a tool called dimdim at     www.dimdim.com which is a free source, collaborative online meeting tool.  I have used it for a couple of informal meetings with other teachers - to investigate its attributes but I think it has as yet for a full-blown meeting but have tried it out with another teacher to see how it works. It seems like a great tool. It has a screen share facility, shared whiteboard and documents as great usable collaborative features.

    Reflection:
    I have used the technique of self interview, before.  Mostly it has been when preparing for assessment or interview - to enable me to get clear in my mind my thoughts and priorities,  when ending a particular unit of work - to reflect on achievements or problems along the way or perhaps before a meeting  - to give me some starting points for discussion.  Often the interview is part of a reflection on goals, written at the beginning of a unit of work, and I evaluate them at the end of the unit by working through a set of reflective questions.  I might use questions with regard to student engagement, time management, retained learning or perhaps strengths or weaknesses in planning, in order to constantly help me to improve my practices.

     

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