Tentative Project Plan

This blog provides the answers to the following questions which highlight my tentative plan for the lesson.

Please click on the link below to view the presentation in Google Docs:

https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dcq22cpd_42dq88c6cm&loop=true

1. What is the tentative title/topic of the course?
2. Who are your learners? What age, context/grade, how many students?
3. Main purpose of the course?
4. Will the course be self-paced or facilitated? Fully online or blended? Why?
5. Anticipated time-line for implementation?
6. How many total hours of learning time are required in your course?
7. Are there content standards and/or course objectives that must be aligned to the course outcomes? List them if you know what they are.
8. Adult learners: Does the course need professional development, undergraduate, or graduate credit tied to it? Do you have this available, if needed?
10. In what platform will you host the course (mandated or your choice as designer)?
11. Is this a redesign of a face-to-face or online course, or a totally new course?

Five Giant Steps through Virginia

My podcast series is entitled, Five Giant Steps through Virginia.  The series is about the five major land regions of the Commonwealth of Virginia.  In these podcasts, listeners are taken on an east-to-west discovery trip through the five regions.  I chose this subject because I have loved every minute of the five years I have lived in Virgina.  In addition, when I was a fourth-grade teacher, I had to teach Virginia Studies, including the five regions.  Because I was a new resident, I felt compelled to research and learn more, mainly to know what I was talking about to my fourth graders, but also to be knowledgeable about the place I had chosen to be my home for the rest of my life.  When I moved to Virginia, I did not even know that the state had five land regions.  I think my fourth graders would have liked having a podcast series like this to help them to learn in addition to the other resources they were given.
In this series, we learn many things about the regions.  These topics include the geography, major products and industries, important cities, and historically significant places and attractions of each region.  Traveling east to west in this way helps the listeners to follow along, either with a book, a map, or other resource if they choose.  It also is more organized and allows one to understand the specific relationships between many elements that make Virginia the wonderful place it is today.

The initial podcast I created is called, Step 1:  The Coastal Plain.  In this episode, we are introduced to Virginia via the easternmost region, the Coastal Plain, or Tidewater.  I take the listener through the region by discussing the elements listed in the preceding paragraph.  As Virginia is rich in history, many historic places are covered in the podcast, with their significance established.  I enjoyed creating it, and hope that you will enjoy listening and learning.

You can listen to the podcast at the following link: http://susantolivaredtech513.wordpress.com/about/podcast/

Changing of the Guard

I had trouble coming up with a topic so I decided to do one on what I know - the Air National Guard. Since September 11, 2001, the mission of the "Guard" had dramatically changed. Specifically, the Air National Guard was always considered America's great flying club. As budgets tightened and resources were re-allocated, the Air Guard began to take on a more prominent role in the nation's defense. When September 11th happened, the Air National Guard found itself at a sort of crossroads - either play an even bigger part in national defense or be relegated to nothing more than a source for personnel and equipment when wars or natural disasters occurred.

My podcast is an introduction for Air National Guard members, specifically members of my airlift wing, to access and get the latest news regarding our unit. Many times members aren't either given or privy to information about our unit and this is a way for them to find out what exactly is going on.

It was difficult for me to find appropriate unlicensed music for my podcast but I think I finally found something that works. There was a learning curve for me when it came to editing and saving the files correctly but I finally overcame that hurdle. Once I understood the functionality of Audacity, it was a lot of fun manipulating the different tracks and finalizing the quality.

Paul

Dipping or Diving

Test (or performance) anxiety. From an experienced teacher’s standpoint, the symptoms are apparent; from a personal standpoint the void in the center of my being is alien, yet its presence is painfully making itself known as technology sweeps me into the unexplored territory of apps, mobile devices, and shareware.
For an old gal approaching 50, I am far from the digital fluency of my children and students even though they continually depend on me to answer their myriad “how to” questions. I’m reluctant to share with them that they are following a blind navigator, so I embrace their devices and software with a lingering sense of dread akin to diving into a frigid lake rather than slowly dipping hoping for submersion by tolerance.
Whatever the water temperature – any diver knows there are certain things for which one must prepare – knowledge of existing hazards, depth of water, swimming ability, length of time one can hold one’s breath, and diving technique. My diving ability doesn’t stop me from appreciating the expertise of seals and penguins as they flaunt their superb skills any more than my amazement at the ease in which even preschool children take to the endless array of information access.
For that reason, I am creating the podcast "What matters" that offers strategies to reduce the aprehension associated with written or performance assessment in hopes that my listeners will improve their test scores and feel better doing it - and while I'm at it, I'm helping myself. In the same way that I might prepare for a dive, I am preparing for my technological future because for this digital immigrant, that’s what matters.

Science and Me.

Science and Me is a podcast concentrating on Science at the elementary school age level. The hope is that students as well as parents can use the podcast as a resource for further their understanding about science.

The first episode is about Earth Science. We discuss what is Earth Science and we discuss Earth and its place in our solar system.

I Heart EdTech

I consider myself a bona fide lover of technology, and I know I share this love with many others. This is why I created the “I Heart EdTech” Podcast series. I thought about this topic a lot while I was attending the ISTE conference at the end of last month. My goal was to create a show that would appeal to educators, educational technologists or just about anyone who had a love for technology. It could even be used for the people in my organization which is a franchise-based education company.

I would produce the podcast on a weekly basis for my audience. I have even created an email address for corresponding with listeners. The topics will include EdTech news, various tools and ideas for instruction and professional development learning events. In this episode, I share some responses given by teachers, parents and administrators regarding the value of technology in schools. This part was both challenging and interesting. First of all, time management is key because you must work with the schedules of others when you need several people to sit down and record with you. Also, everyone had so much more to say about the issue, therefore, you have to edit quite a bit to stay within a reasonable time and more importantly get the best content. Nonetheless, I am very grateful to the people who participated.

I really liked using Audacity for this project. Incorporating the sound clips and music was easy and gave the podcast character. I tried not to break any of the Multimedia Theory principles, which was not too hard since there were no visuals to go along with my podcast. However, this series would be great as a video podcast because it’s beneficial to show some of the technology tools in use. I followed the format from point #1 in our project description, so the episode is longer than 10 minutes. If you have a chance to listen, I’d appreciate any feedback that is shared. I hope you enjoy it!

Performance Improvement in the Workplace (PIW)

PIW is a professional development series. The focus of this series is human performance improvement with a particular emphasis in the work place. This series will cover such topics as; goal setting, self assessment, effective planning practices, time management, chairing and participating in meetings, presenting, communicating effectively, and many others. This first episode in an introduction and like most the objective is to inform you, while also intriguing you, in hopes that you will tune in for the next podcast.

I learned several things this week about podcasting and audacity. I am not 100% pleased with it but I took the lessons to heart and will not make the same mistakes again. Some of the things I will strive to improve upon are scripting. I think my script was adequate but needs more polish in providing the listener a better overall snapshot of what this series is about. I also think the conclusion of my podcast was a little rushed which also reflected that my script was not fully developed.

Sorry about the link issue, I too am having problems with it. You will have to click and download to listen. I'm working hard to get this resolved on my end in addition I am having network issues at home. I am logged onto the internet through my phone as I type this blog.