Class Reflection

I very much enjoyed this class and learning the many new tools. I'm excited to find relevant ways to use them in my classes. I'm especially excited about the wiki or website and want to create one for each of the subjects that I teach. I'm also excited to do more exploring with the other tools that we learned like animoto, google docs, and thinkfinity. I do feel that I need much more practice and familiarity with each of the tools but ultimately I'm very grateful that I had this opportunity. Thank you Kathleen & Sandy for puting the class on!

Audience & Purpose

My site is called Fit & Well For Life (JHS-PE). The url is http://sites.google.com/site/wholefoodnutritionwheelerjhs/
... which makes no sense, but that's okay. I asked Kathleen how to change the url and she said I would basically need to create a new site and copy and paste everything into it. So I'm okay for now.
I created this site as a resource for the students in my Fit & Well PE class. I wanted to have a resource for them to access required class documents, class pics, and a class calendar. I also plan on having more technology based assignments and will use this site as a tool for this.

My Wiki

Well, I've finished my site. Or at least for now. I spent about 8 hours on it today and did get a lot onto it. I was able to embed links, insert pics, attach documents, edit the sidebar, ad a gadget, create and insert a google calendar, etc. etc. I actually had a lot of fun with it and got a little bit addicted to adding more and more 'stuff'. I hope my students find it valuable. I created it as resource for my Fit & Well PE class. I'm wondering how to invite people to view it. Is it as simple as copying and pasting the url into an email? Oh, another question is how can I change the url or address? When I thought of it I had a different idea for the site, and then changed my mind so the current url doen't make sense for the actual site content.

Homework Assignment

I figured it out. There is a way to easily and efficiently see how many posts each group member made and to which discussion without trying to search through each discussion! Very cool.

Homework Assignment

On our next visit to the lab I had students view all three meatrix episodes and post to the group their thoughts about what they watched in at least one paragraph. I also provided a sample post. Then they were required to respond to at least three other classmates posts on the topic.
I'd like to know if there is a way to easily and quickly check how many posts each student has posted, rather than having to search through all of the posts. I've searched around on the group page and haven't been able to find such a way.

Homework Assignment

I did the homework assignment and used some of the things that we've learned in this class with one of my classes. I decided to create a google group for one of the classes that I teach, Fit & Well For Life (a fitness based Phys. Ed. course that I created). We will use the group to discuss topics that we cover in class and for homework assignments.
I took the class to the computer lab on Friday to sign up for gmail accounts ...and more if we had time. Many students got further than I expected and many were not even able to set up an account. First I had students sign up for a gmail account. Then I had them put together their igoogle page. That worked well as everyone had something to do even while waiting for others to catch up. Gmail blocked some students from signing up for an account because it determined them to be spammers because so many people had tried to set up accounts from the same computer. Those students had to set up their gmail account for homework.
Then I had each student email me at my gmail account so that I had their address to use to invite them to the group. Then I sent them an invitation to join the group from the google group page. I am wondering if there is an easier way to get everyone to the group page besides emailing each person individually. I made the page public and tried getting to it by just using the web address but was not able to find the page (even though I had the exact address), so I figured I had to do it that way.
Then the students were able to get to the group and reply to the my post which asked them to check in by posting a note saying that they had made it to the group and to share their thoughts about igoogle. Many of the students thought the group idea was cool. Also, many thought that igoogle was alright, but said that they liked yahoo's homepage better.
Next, I will have them visit themeatrix.com and watch 'The Meatrix', 'The Meatrix II', and 'The Meatrix II 1/2' and post to the group with their comments. (If you haven't visited themeatrix.com and are interested in nutrition and/or food sustainability, you should check it out. Its humorous AND educational!)