What I learned in UCB x359.5

In this class I learned that an entire course that allows for lots of learning can be done without writing in a notebook, reading a textbook or filling out a worksheet. Not even one time!

I enjoyed learning all of the technologies that were presented in class but the ones that were most useful for me and that I see myself using in the future on a regular basis are the Google Docs, Google Groups and Hotlists.

Hotlists will be very important for me as a teacher trainer whose main role is to provide support for teachers. There are so many great sources on the web that address the concerns and needs of the teachers I work with. But I know that they have limited time to search the web and find these great sources. Now that I know about Hotlists I plan to frequently send these list to teachers so that they can easily and quickly stay up-to-date with the current research and ideas in our field.

Google Groups are great because the teachers I work with do not teach at one central campus, they are places at K12 sites all over Oakland. Even though we have teacher meetings once a month, that is not enough for the teachers to get feedback from each other about their ideas and concerns. I see Google groups as a great tool for teachers to share ideas and concerns with each other which will lead to better collaboration and teaching in the entire program.

I became convinced about using Google Docs after watching the apple video about managing copies of the same draft. In our program, teachers are frequently writing curriculum in teams. We recently finished a unit and there were several times that the most recent draft was not given to all of the members because there were too many copies created. It was impossible to keep track of which draft was the most current. In the future I will strongly suggest that we use Google Docs to write our program curriculum.

Other than the technologies I listed above, probably the most valuable application that I learned from this class is becoming more familiar with a Mac. I am a PC user at home and in the office, but whenever I visit the classrooms I manage and whenever I teach trainings in campus computer labs the computers that are available are always Macs. In the past, I have always been limited in what I could do because I was afraid I would not know how to help the students because I did not know what to do without the right click! Since all of our class time in this course was spent using Macs I know learned how to get by without using the right click and I am so much more comfortable using a Mac.