Self+Assessment

Self Directed Portfolio //Learning to use a wiki for Systems of Technology class // Self Assessment-
Using a Wiki is one o the newest and most successful methods of getting information out to students. I felt this would be a great use of the time spent in grad school for a few reasons. My department has been striving to become paperless in efforts to save money and waste. My district has a push to use more technology in everyday classroom instruction, which is also my professional goal this year, and my observers will be looking for this. As stated in my goals I also wanted to bring my class together as a community and give students supplemental information for class. Based on these goals and my ever-growing knowledge of online software, I feel this was a great addition to not only my class, but also my own skill set. I already run the department website, and have learned a good amount of Flash and Dreamweaver, but before this class I didn't even know what a Wiki was.

My learning process was slow at first, but I must admit I got hooked. I ended up spending almost every free period in a day working on, adding to, modifying what I already had, or trying something new with the software. Today I have compiled a very comprehensive site filled with project oriented information, student work, and educational articles. My students have taken some ownership, and I would like to learn more, in hopes to give them more access and control so they may be in charge of their own destiny. Almost everyday I have new students joining, and even have students from other classes joining and adding to the discussion.

Periodically I would hit a bit of a wall or worse, go back and delete everything I had just worked on because I had found better information or didn't like the way it looked/flowed. I consulted (and showed off) to my colleagues and now even have students submitting assignments through the Wiki. I feel I learned a great deal about this particular type of educational software. I have had the opprotunity through this class to put aside the time to force myself to learn. I have added videos to make my lessons run more smoothly, by having the information collected in one area. I have added a Calendar from Google to help both students and instructor alike to keep track of due dates. On top of all of this, I have managed to create the community in the discussion board which is very similar to college classes that run online (which i modeled it after a class I took last semester). Without this class I dont feel I would have learned as much or as quickly. I found having a deadline, and knowing I would have to present my information I needed to really practice and //know// the software. No one wants to stumble through a presentation in front of their peers. I also found I am a very visual learner. I started to reference books from our school library and our Computer Science Department. These texts were actually less than helpful. I found online sources were much easier to find, reference individual sections, find the solution to my problem, and continue on.