Before and After... can I buy a vowel?

From Joomla to Googlepages!
Well, what a journey this has been! I have learned so much about designing an adventure learning project. I feel like shedding a tear of sentimentalness (is that a word?) because I think of where I was when I started my first Learning Technolgies course to where I am now. I have grown so much! This adventure learning project for me was a culmination of what I have learned in the courses throughout the year. For example, in "Designing Online Learning" I learned how to create a course through Web Vista, and looked at how Smartboards are a great technology tool in the classroom. I also took a cooperative learning class at the U of M, and joined the Olweus Bullying Prevention Committee at my elementary school. In this adventure learning course, I learned many new skills, and a greater understanding of the elements of adventure learning. I know realize this is not a great website!! I incorporated all of these experiences and what I learned into our adventure learning project.

I really leaned a lot this year and am grateful for this. I practiced being a designer in so many ways and had to think through so many scenarios besides just mere fonts, colors, and sizes. This took a lot of work! But, I'm also very proud of this project. I watched people present in class last week with their fancy front pages and thought to myself, "they did a great job, but some of those people do this for a living and get paid big bucks to make logos and websites!" I am an elementary school teacher who did her best work and spent many months on this. So, I'm fiercely proud of this project and feel it meets the seven principles of adventure learning project.

I realize there are areas for growth and "next steps" if we had more time. For example, I would like to build in more synched learning opportunities and more collaboration between pre-service teachers and their peers. Another next step would actually be to take this show on the road and try it out in real a real college setting with pre-service teachers. We'll see where this all leads...

But for now, I will take away depth of knowledge and great experiences.
-Tara

Our new Go Teach! site

Since our transition to Google pages our project has grown and improved tremendously! We've added collaboration zones, a tech corner, and lots of media and useful information for pre service teachers!

Here are two pictures that show the before and after:

Changes ahead: Navigating the project!

Last week was very helpful! We were meeting in our classroom during our online-class meeting time. Another group happened to be working in there. Without our asking, they brought up our project on the big screen and began navigating it. As we watched how an outside person navigated our site, we realized they were not going where we wanted them to go. So, I worked at re-arranging the front page this weekend. I took out the 4 standards links, and put that on a separate page. This way, the learner is pushed more to the "collaboration" and "resources" zones.

I also worked a lot with the collaboration zone recently. It now has a "spruced up" look, and more opportunities to collaborate with peers and experts.

I'm really proud of our project, and it's almost altogether!! It's down to the tweaking now. Of course, it seems like there's always more to add. This could be a forever on-going project!

New times, good times!!

We made the big switch to Google pages and are LOVING IT!!! Everyone is able to easily add content and make the site work and look the way we want it too. I must admit I now ENJOY this project much more than I did before. I would dread my homework of working on Joomla because I felt inadequate, as if it were just too much and I had fears of not being able to figure it out. Last class I felt myself heading to the coffee shop because I couldn't wait to add my new idea to the project. I'm very grateful for this change. I am happy with how our project is coming along now!

3rd Grade Classroom

Week 5

This week we spent a lot of work on our polarhusky.com teaching, so we spent a lot of time in this environment. But, this will help us in developing our own adventure learning final project. We are seeing how polarhusky.com uses zones and collaboration zones. I am impressed how polarhusky.com has so many interrelated activities and lessons. Everything has easy access and keeps you at the site. I hope that we can use these principals in our site.