Catching up- few tech tips

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       Web 2.0 vs Web 1.0, Mashups, Social bookmarking etc. were some of the lingo that welcomed us this time

     ....Until this class, I never knew about its existence.... Several times did I send bookmarks from my own computer into my email, just because I would need to access them from another computer. Now I find, there was somebody who thought to make this tool available online also... Delicious  .com huh !! I could instantly relate to the use of this technology, having gone personally the longer way quite a few times. After the class was over, I played around with this a little and actually went online with my bookmarks. Am glad I will not have to go that annoying route again... having to send emails to yourself with just a link or two.
       Time to move on... and now I hear about "When is good" wow. There seems to be an online solution for almost every convenience issue humans face (may be except a few..:P). This tool helps schedule meetings after knowing convenient timings of all those involved (given the fact that everybody is super busy when we really need more than 2 people to be there at a place for a meeting). We then write down possible options (dates or times), and find at least one person for whom each of these time slots are inconvenient.  I am going to wait for my first committee meeting to test ride this online tool. So I'll be back to share how that went. :)
      Then we went to something more familiar (at least in hearsay), creating a website using google sites. Again, the neophyte in me had worked on Googlepages, but never knew about Googlesites until couple weeks before. After going through some of the initial steps, it seems that I should be able to navigate through this technology fairly easily. So I will have to resurrect my shelved project- my own website, courtesy Google :P
    We are gearing for the team tech talks which our group will be doing on Feb 9th. More than being excited about what we are going to be presenting, I am looking forward to what other teams would be bringing to the table. With team based learning being a mainstay of this course, I guess all of this becomes more interesting.

                     Next time I'll tell about "Kokusai Teki".

through the lens of Teaching Perspectives

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       The Teaching Perspectives Inventory (TPI) exercise kept me wondering for a while right after I got my results :). I did understand that there was no right and wrong perspective of teaching. I've had teachers that were exemplary in what they did, and fell in all of these categories.... so what do I really believe in...?? That was the million dollar question (... may be not a million :P ) of the hour.
         Transmission - I pictured my best teacher giving a well prepared lecture, drawing on the knowledge and experience she had over the many years. That was full of interesting and informative knowledge which kept me inquisitive all the while, and made me want to hear more.... She was a great teacher.. and that was her perspective....I also had teachers with , developmental, apprenticeship, and nurturing perspectives..... So yea I could see few faces with each of these perspectives and few with a mixture of these... :) but I did not have any that stand out with the social perspective. That could be because I was in the sciences and not something that had a social impact. That made sense too. Anyways, coming back to THE question... what did I believe in?, what was my perspective?
       I was a disappointed at first seeing that transmission was not my strong perspective (given the fact that I thoroughly enjoyed my teachers "transmission" lectures loaded with knowledge while I was an undergrad"), but I was totally ok, because with time, I've evolved from that and my perspective has changed. So yea, after all the information that was read and discussed, I was happy with the couple dominant perspectives and the recessive perspective of mine. However, I did entertain a debate within my gray cells about the thin line separating two teachers with nurturing perspective, one with enough nurture in nature that would benefit the student and the other that just wanted  to be "liked" by the student. Former to the later, that's a line I do NOT want to cross.
      Breaking of from the TPI, we got into our groups, and yea we were a MIX of a kind....(I'll keep that news/discussion for later :)). The discussions that happened then was just enough to increase curiosity about the technologies we were going to confront in class now, and life later. Just knowing that you don't know what you are unaware of until you get there; or not knowing enough to know what you want to know is knowledge in its self (If that makes sense :P). I'm sure I'll have interesting things to pen down as we get into more stuff.
    As for today's last words, I should try and find some research on the technology for the team tech talks. With the weekend getting over faster than we always anticipate, I'm sure that's gonna be just FUN.

                             Till I catch u next, do stay warm and dry :)

Technology in Class

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hmmmm....
We've always had our thoughts about why our favorite teachers were the best. Why others did not match up to him/her, why and how they did what they did best... :) This was just about the method of teaching. When technology is combined with teaching, we get a whole new animal. From professors who have never used a computer, to those who are abreast with cutting edge technology even before its on the market, we probably see them everyday.
Enough of picking on others.... now , maybe in a few years from now I'll be evaluated by the students of the then "today". When I face an interview board for a position that involves teaching, I must be marketable.....For a simpler reason, I should be able to speak the language of the student, which in tomorrows world, I'm afraid is gonna be technology ++
So oft I embark on this journey with fellow EDHI 9040 ers to try and get a grip of whats there outside, what am I going to stare at in a few years.... and what not.......
here we comeeeeeeee